Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-05-06
OUR SENSITIVE EARS
fHE PECULIAR MECHANISM OF THESE
WONDERFUL ORGANS.

eS0w They Are Affected by the shock
of the Discharge of Dig Guns-Ihe
Odd Way In Which some Enrs Are
Piaycd Upon by Various Sounds.
Whenever a big gun is fired Mt Fort
Hancock, the governments proving
grounds on Sandy Hook, the officers i'll
charge advise all spectators to stand
on Their tiptoes, stick their fingers in
their ears and open their mouths On
board ship. where conditions are such
fhat one cannot get far away from Il
Thirteen inch rife. the more sensitive
among the-oliieers ana sailors place a
cork or chunk of rubber between their
t"r5h WtIoa ,her" is about to be i dis
Fuar4o. &rn have been known to
Hleed in tfa#,ar from the effects of the
coreuasiou caused by Il much smaller
@uH thln Il thirteen inca narr ono
uf tle ois-yts at Fort Itancock was
a@ked 70 esu lain the philosophy Of cIe-
voting oneself en- fhc toes placing lin-
gers fH Hcafz uni opening Tie i1outh
@St5afn5 OH the toes IS Itbe stand
:n2-oa= Il sprf0a' he replied, willie
standing 4a tl4t heel OF fun sole Of
She Ioat isiIi,e Standing on solid. ~
placing a spring between your person
aud Il Yi63FIt force the impact is 80
weakened tltat you are unlikely 10 sHf-
Ser injury. IN the firing of heavy ord
ilancc 4 severe shock may be received
from the grouHd.
CAS- for the fingers in the ears, that's
plain enough. 1t is simply closing the
auditory canal to prevent the ingrcss
of the air which is set in intense vi
bration by the discharge, Many
careless soldier has had his tympanic
membrane destroyed by ncglectinG to
close UP his ears, either With his fin
gers or soElc foreign substance.
1T is wise to open the mouth, for the
reason that to do so tends to cqualze
the pressure caused by the detonation.
With the mouth closed the pressure is
on the external side of the tympanic
membrane, forcing it inward and split
ting it. When the mouth is open this
Is offset by the same pressure from
within, by means Of the eustachian
tube
Many men in the artillery are mi
nus tympanic membranes, but that
wonderful design of nature Is not alb
solutely necessary to hearing. When
1t Is torn the hearing is impaired, GER
sainly, but not destroyed, since the
surrounding air then acts directly upon
the membranes of the two orlfices.
Nothing in anatomy is more beautiful
than the arrangement of the ear.
have made Il study of it since coming
here, as l had the misfortune to lose
one Of my tympanic membranes.
''The inner membrane of the cochlea
Is lined with elastic iibers. discovered
by Corti and bearing his name. They
apparently form the examinations of
the fllaments of the auditory nerve.
Helmholtz, the greatest authority on
acoustics the world has produced. de-
.lared that each one of these tibers is
attuned to special note and as they
are above 5000 in number there must
be over 400 for each octave. The in
teryal from one to another is one sixty
sixth of tone. They form Won
drous instrument for reproducing every
note that the ear can distinguish. The
r,ochkna may be called an Tolian harp
Ut 5000 strings that move in sympathy
to all the sounds of creation.
4'Alany ears are incapable Of hearing
very high sounds. Many persons are
saeaf to the chirping of crickets, and
hn tyi n n
.Sparrows. There was said to be
boy in Texas whose ears We're de-
formed to remarkable degree, the
auricle of one being nearly as large
as the side Of his head while that OF
the other was no bigger than your
tlfumb nail By closing the small ear
he could hear the approach of rain
storm a hundred miles off. BY closing
she big one he could hear a fly walking
ON the ceiling Isn't that romantic
enough for you? 1t takes 4 vivid i'm
agination to believe the story. but
when YOU consider the miracles of the
car and hearing you may believe al
most anything.
~ do not doubt that there are many
sounds SO faint that our ears are deaf
so them, but they make sweet music
For others You know what paraeoustS
IS, I suppose. Nc? Well, YOU have it
when YOU cannot hear faint sounds at
MI when things are still, but hear them
~ once when they are accompanied 10y
q great noise once read of a woman
IAN authentic ease) Who made her serV-
ant beat Il drum whenever She want
ed to listen to anything, for then she
conld hear Very we'll. There W"S II
man who could not hear except when
3he bells were ringing 1t is an cid
story that deaf persons hear well when
travelling on railroad. or when rat
sling over Il rough highway in Il car