Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-11-09
OUR SENSITIVE EARS
THE PECULIAR MECHANISM OF THESE
WONDERFUL ORGANS.

How They Are Affected BY the shock
Of the Discharge Of Biz G1ns~The
Odd Way In Which Some Ears Are
Played Upon By Various Sounds.
> Whenever big gun is fred 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 enc cannot get far away from a
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
conclusion caused by a much smaller
gun than thirteen inch bore. One
of the officers at Fort Hancock was
asked to explain the philosophy Of ele.
waiting oneself on the toes, placing fn-
gers in ears and opening the mouth.
"Standing on the toes is like stand
ing on spring. he replied, while
standing on the heel or full sole Of
the foot is like standing on solid. BY
placing spring between your person
and violent force the impact is so
weakened that you are unlikely to SUI
fer injury. In the firing of heavy ord
nance severe shock may be received
from the ground.
''As for the fingers in the ears, that's
plain enough. 1t is simply closing the
auditory canal to prevent the ingress
Of the air which is set in intense vi
brat1on by the discharge. Many a
careless soldier has had his tympan1c
membrane destroyed by neglecting to
close up his ears, either with his fin
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 defamation.
With the mouth closed the pressure is
Oh 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
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 orifces.
Nothing in anatomy is more beautiful
than the arrangement of the ear. I
have made study of it since coming
here, as l 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 fbers Is
attuned to a special note, and as they
are above 5000 in number there must
be over 400 for each octave. The in.
| terval from one to another is one-sixty'
sixth Of a tone. They form won
drous instrument for reproducing every
note that the ear can distinguish. The
cochlea may be called an molian harr
of 1900 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 chipping of crickets, and
some cannot hear the twittering OF
sparrows. There was said to be s
boy in Texas whose ears were de
formed to a remarkable degree, thu
auricle of one being nearly as large
as the side Of his head, while that Of
the other was no bigger than YOU
thumb nail. By closing the small cal
storm hundred miles off. BY closing
the big one he could hear fly walking
on the ceiling. Isn't that romantic
enough for you? 1t takes vivid i'm
agination to believe the story, bu
when you consider the miracles Of thu
ear and hearing you may believe al
most anything.
II do not doubt that there are man!
sounds so faint that our ears are dea
to them, but they make sweet musi
for others. You know what paracOusi
is, suppose. No? Well, you have |
when you cannot hear faint sounds 8
all when things are still, but hear then
at once when they are accompanied b.
a great noise. l once read of a woman