The Press., 1904-07-20
OUR SENSITIVE EARS
THE PECULIAR MECHANISM OF THESE
WONDERFUL ORGANS.

WONDERFUL ORGANS.
How They Are Affected ny &c shoeh
of the Discharge of BA@ Guns-The
Odd Way I'm which s0me Ears Are
Played Upon by Various Sounds.
Whenever big gun is fired at Fort
Hancock, the governments proving
grounds on Sandy Hook, the officers in
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
that one cannot get far away from q
thirteen inch rife, the more sensitive
among the officers and sailors place a
cork or chunk Of rubber between their
teeth when there Is about to be a dis
charge. Men have been known to
bleed in the ear from the effects of the
concussion caused by q much smaller
gun than a thirteen inch bore. One
of the officers at Fort Hancock was
asked to explain the philosophy Of ele-
waiting oneself on the toes, placing fin
gers in ears and opening the mouth.
standing on the toes is like stand
ing ON a spring." he replied, while
standing on the heel or full sole of
the foot is like standing on solid. By
placing a spring between your person
and violent force the impact is SO
weakened that you are unlikely to suf-
fer injury. In the firing Of heavy ord
nance severe shock may be received
from the ground.
las for the fingers In the ears, that's
plain enough. 1t is simply closing the
auditory canal to prevent the tngress
Of the air which is set in intense VI
bration by the discharge. Many a
careless soldier has had his tympanic
membrane destroyed by negIecting to
close up his ears, either with his I'm
gers or some foreign substance.
1T is wise to open the mouth, for the
reason that to do SO tends to equalize
the pressure caused by the detonation.
With the mouth closed the pressure Is
on the external side of the tympanic
membrane, forcing 1t 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
it is torn the hearing is impaired, GER
tainly, but not destroyed, since the
surrounding air then acts directly upon
the membranes Of the two ori1ces.
Nothing in anatomy Is more beautiful
than the arrangement of the ear. /
have made a study OF 1t since coming
here, as / had the misfortune to lose
one of my. tympanic membranes.
1.-THE inner membrane Of the cochlea
is lined with elastic fibers, discovered
by Corti and bearing his name. They
apparently form the examinations of
the filaments of the auditory nerve.
HelmhOltz, the greatest authority on
acoustics the world has produced, de-
clared that each one of these hbers Ia
attuned to a special note, and as they
are above 5000 in number there must
be over 400 for each octave. The In
sixth of a tone. They form a won
drous instrument for reproducing every
note that the ear can distinguish. The
cOchlea may be called an ROlian harp
of Z, 1000 strings that move in sympathy
to all the sounds Of creation.
MANY ears are incapable of hearing
very high sounds. Many persons are
deaf to the chirping Of crickets, and
some cannot hear the twittering Of
boy in Texas whose ears were de
formed to a 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
thumb nail. By closing the small ear
he could hear the approach Of a rain
storm a hundred miles of. By closing
the big one he could hear a fly walking
on the ceiling. Isn't that romantic
enough for you? 1t takes a vivid Inn
agination to believe the story, but
when you consider the miracles of the
ear and hearing you may believe al
most anything. .
'T do not doubt that there are many
sounds SO faint that our ears are deaf
to them, but they make sweet music
for others You know what paracousis
is, suppose. No? Well, you have 1t
when you cannot hear faint sounds at
all when things are still, but hear them
at once when they are accompanied by
a great noise. once read Of woman
ian authentic case) who made her serv-
ant beat q drum whenever she want
ed to listen to anything, for then she
could hear very well. There was q
man who could not hear except when
the bells were ringing. It Ii an old
story that deaf persons hear well when
travelling on a railroad, or when rat
tling over a rough highway In car
riage.
"There was a shoemaker's apprentice
who heard only when his master was
beating out sole on his iron. The
left ear generally hears better than the
right. Some say this is owing to the
common habit of sleeping on the right
side / have my doubts. There is q
record of man whose two ears heard
different tones at the same time when
a single one was given.
1.-The ears OF the lower animals are
incomplete. Do fishes hear? Certain
ly, although the cavity OF the tympa-
mum is entirely wanting, the round and
oval orifices being at the top Of the
head Look out! Get up on your toes
and open your mouth. The mortar on
the left Is about to be discharged. The
wind is with the shell, so you needn't
close your ear. There she goesT-New