The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-24
EAIts.
Some of the Curious Organs of the Lower
 Animals.


 ag,u an article was going the rounds of the journals treating the external ear as an index of temperament. With that this paper has nothing to do, for its object is not to discuss human ears but to give "a hint or two as to the different kinds of ears met with in the animal kingdom.
 It is well known that, according to the accepted theories of light and sound these phenomena are the results of un- dulations of a universal medium to which wave motion can be communi- cated. Just as when you drop a stone into 8 velsel containing water wave mo- tion is set up, and is continued until 1t strikes the margin, so wave motion is | set up by expended eIrergy in the me dium, and is continued until its course | is stopped in some way or other. The | undu,ations of Mghlt travel at the rate | of 1S6,000 miles Gin round numbers) per | second, while those of sound travel oyeu. l HOO Gin round numbers, again) in the same time. Not onlly is there a wonder ful difference in the rate of travellng, but also i'm the length of the waves. The wave length of the sound produced | by a c tuning fork is PA inches, while for the production of white light (sunl | Ight) there will be 44,000 waves in an inch, for red light S7 $40, and for violet 59,750. Then, again, while the sound of the tuning fork makes only 512 vibra- tlonis in a second, white lighit makes 541 millions of millions, red 45s millions of millions and violet 727 millions of rnd1- | Mons
 It is reasonable to expect, therefore, that the organs of man and the other animals which are prepared to yield Impressions of light and sound will be very different in constructions and so it is with eyes and ars-eyes for light, ears for sound. And not only so. When the conditions under which any creature lives denrand consciousness of Night, or of sound, or of both, We shaM find that the organs correspond to the predoTni- nance or equality of the demands.
 Most readers are acquainted with, at all events, the general principles on which the human ear is constructed an outer ear; an external opening and passage; "a membrane acrosiS that pas rage called the drum; a chain Of bones, one of which is called Nthe ham, mer," the second s'bha nnvil,' and the third ''the stirrup''; an oval opening in the partition of bone between the drum chamber and the brain, which receives the fiaietened plate of the sttrrup; and the labyrinth. The simple mechanism of hearing may be put thus. Tine vi b1saltions of sound strike the drum, are communicated by it to the chairl of bones, and are passed on by them ito the brain. The Dahyfitrth deals with I differences of ''patch" in sounds and of l motions.
 Now, just as we find fawly forms of other organs among the flower anG- | nIaa,' so do We meet with lowqy cars, some of which are very curious. The l lowest animals do not appear to have any organs which gan be definitely be l called ears, alttaargh, as in the case of l eIarthworrns. they are very sensitive to l the vibrations of solid objects, siiclh as may be caused by any one walking on tine surface of the earth. Strangely, | however, We find evidences of organs of hearing among the jelly fish, of which | you may see specimens stranded nm the seashore after every tide. And, what l is very remarkable-s far as we know alt present-there is no case where both organs for hearing and organs for see ing are developed in the same species among these medusae. Taking the spe- cies which have auditory organs. i've l find in some open rniJqlthed pits provided with sensitive hairs; in others the pits contain, mot chain of small bones, but a lump, or series of nlnips, of secrefed | lime, which are called otoliths, or ear isbones, while in others again the pits l are not epen, but closed. In one me dlisa there are no less than from thirty to fifty ear stones arranged in double linIe in the cell so as to form cresceEt In another species the nu inber of sepa- rate ears amount to no less than eighty A seacucumber which lives in tine depths of itfle ocean has fifty4sIix i-f these audi tory organs.
 A crustacean not unlike a shrimp fir form has its ears in its tail, if we ma } so call the termiral segment, while a1futher--the crayfisah-has them at ti1e | base of the feelers on the head. In thi crayfish the ear is open, but bristles | prevent foreign matter form entering The cavity is filed with a gelatfnptll fluids in which otoIihs fllJait. These aft affected by the vibrations communicated by sound in the water; in their ttiqr they convey the vibrations to certain
 hairs which line the cavity; these for
 ward the message to the nerves, ant finally 1t reaches the nerve center of the l creature
 InEects like grasslnoppers, crickets allt lecusta have their ears in strange places l-some on the middle of the body, other:
 on the legs. Whatever other uses tht creatures may also make of thesa' or
 gans, they are verftable auditory or gans. In them we find a membraTli
 stretched across a, cavity, with an open irg to the external air, and within tht
 cavity is a nerve masts developed at tn
 end of an auditory nerve. It would bl hard, indeed, if the chirping cicada
 tine cricket on the hearth" and th'
 querolous katydid could not be hearC
 by their companions. It is said tha
 those pests in the house-the flies-eal
 hear by meaus of some rows of cor
 puscles oni the knobbed threads whicl represent ths hind wings of the insect;
 k is uncertain whether bees can hear
 If not, then al the labor of the ok
 fashioned bee keeper in beating a til kettle at sNarmlng time is in vain