Richard Luchsinger (1900–1993) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

medical doctor who made early contributions to the field of

Speech Language Pathology Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

, specifically in "phoniatry" or the study of

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

. He was born in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and specialized in

otorhinolaryngology Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the surgical an ...

. His most notable contribution to the field of voice was a textbook that he published with Dr. Gottfried E. Arnold. The textbook was originally published in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, however the second edition, published in 1965, was translated into English under the title: ''Voice-Speech-Language''. Although the text was written over 40 years ago, the topics covered in the text are quite similar to those that would be covered in a contemporary voice textbook, which shows how much further along the study of phoniatry was compared to other subdivisions of

at the time. For example, topics covered in this text included:

speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

, observational methods, treatment of laryngeal electromyography, physiology of

respiration Respiration may refer to: Biology * Cellular respiration, the process in which nutrients are converted into useful energy in a cell ** Anaerobic respiration, cellular respiration without oxygen ** Maintenance respiration, the amount of cellul ...

and voice production, genetic factors in voice, development of voice throughout the lifespan, professional voice,

voice therapy Voice therapy consists of techniques and procedures that target vocal parameters, such as vocal fold closure, pitch, volume, and quality. This therapy is provided by speech-language pathologists and is primarily used to aid in the management of ...

; pathology of the

larynx The larynx (), commonly called the voice box, is an organ (anatomy), organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. The opening of larynx into pharynx known as the laryngeal ...

nodules Nodule may refer to: *Nodule (geology), a small rock or mineral cluster *Manganese nodule, a metallic concretion found on the seafloor *Nodule (medicine), a small aggregation of cells *Root nodule Root nodules are found on the roots of plants, p ...

asymmetries Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pre ...

, genetic defects of voice and laryngeal web, sulcus glottides, voice related

endocrine The endocrine system is a messenger system in an organism comprising feedback loops of hormones that are released by internal glands directly into the circulatory system and that target and regulate distant organs. In vertebrates, the hypotha ...

problems, the effects of peripheral nerve lesions, the

sympathetic nervous system The sympathetic nervous system (SNS or SANS, sympathetic autonomic nervous system, to differentiate it from the somatic nervous system) is one of the three divisions of the autonomic nervous system, the others being the parasympathetic nervous sy ...

; laryngeal myopathy, central lesions of the nervous system, laryngeal trauma, cordectomy, joint disorders, alaryngeal voice, vasomotor effects on vocal fold function, functional dysphonias, contact ulcers,

ventricular voice Ventricle may refer to: * Ventricle (heart), the pumping chambers of the heart * Ventricular system In neuroanatomy, the ventricular system is a set of four interconnected cavities known as cerebral ventricles in the brain. Within each ventricl ...

, and psychogenic voice disorders. Luchsinger founded one of the first scholarly journals devoted to the study of voice, called the ''Folia Phoniatrica''. He also founded the ''Swiss Society for Phoniatrics, Logopedics, and Audiology''. Luchsinger published more than 120 research articles, ranging in topic from

Cri Du Chat Syndrome Cri du chat syndrome is a rare genetic disorder due to a partial chromosome deletion on chromosome 5. Its name is a French term ("cat-cry" or " call of the cat") referring to the characteristic cat-like cry of affected children. It was first ...

to laryngeal surgery. He continued to be an active participant in the

community until his death in 1993.

References

D. Cooper. ''Richard Luchsinger (1900–1993): An appreciation'', Journal of Voice, Volume 11, Issue 3, Pages 249–253. Luchsinger, R., Arnold, G.E. Voice-Speech-Language. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing, 1965. {{DEFAULTSORT:Luchsinger, Richard 1900 births 1993 deaths Otolaryngologists Swiss surgeons Speech and language pathologists 20th-century surgeons