Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-04-29
OUR SENSITIVE EARS
THE PECULIAR MECHANISM OF THESE
WONDERFUL ORGANS.
How They Are Affected by the Shock
of the Discharge of Big Guns-The
odd Way In Which Some Ears Are
Played tpOn by Various Sounds.


odd Way In Which Some Ears Are
Played pom by Various sounds.
Whenever Il BIZ gun is fired at I'osi
..tlicock, the governments proving
grounds on Sandy HOOK, the officers ii
charge adv ise all spectators to stana!
n their tptoeS stick their fingers il
heir ears and open their mouths. On
BOARD ship, where conditions are such
hat one cannot get far away from Il
sAtFterH inch ll,'e, Tie more sensitive
.;nonG lie officers aud sailors place :;
.yiI> or chunk OF rubacr hetWern their
lt.eth vhgu tlgere IS about t. be Il dis
charge Mon LaNe brel known i
Diced III Tic e;.r from tie effects Of tle'
eens.u.>s.osI c;,u>,4i ~ Il much sutaIier
-un tuau Il ta,gtvea me,l bore. t'0r
Of the officers at Fort IIaHeoch MIS-
asked 10 eAp.,an Tie philosophy u v.~-
eating oue~el on tic t5e~ pi2eia- TIA
=er~ in cars ami eueH.a- the E.4uth
s.>taHlH4- or The jees i Ike @ts@l
il. OH II SPINS. he replied. s.Whar
z;suaia4 on f6e#asyf Of f1Ii sole ef
lie foot Is hse=@taat.u4 eu a SOLID. ~
.,ls.,ia-, Il i#..a-= =tas.spea 10ar person
and a =Yjoieal ial1e the impact IS 50
es,isuHegf tstsf=Nou are unlikely to sui
.i5r. Iujs...5. IL tae ar,n2 Of heavy #ogd
- i,es, . .zsses.s.= sock may be received
rom iae 2foJ4d.
.fs Tor i245 fingers il tie ears, that's
Ut5itI enou-9 II is sjfa4l1s closing tn
auditory canal TO prevent the in4re~s
i tHe ar which Is set in intense vi
ifatiyl BY the discharge. Many Il
careless soldier has had his tympanis
membrane destroyed h} ne@lectin- 70
close up his eals, either with his tin
@eI> or solne foreign substance
1T is wise to open the mouth. for the
reason that to do so tends to eluali2e
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
soiutey 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 orifices.
Nothing in anatomy is more beautiful
than the arrangement of the ear.
have made a study Of it since coming
here as had the misfortune to lose
one Of my tympanic membranes.
''The inner membrane Of the cochlea
is lined with elastic fibers, discovered
by Corti and bearing his name. They
apparently form the terminations 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 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 tone. They form a Won
drous instrument for reproducing every
!
cochlea may be called an nolian harp
of 5000 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
sparrows. There was said to be
boy in Texas whose ears were 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
thumb nail. BY closing the small ear
he could hear the approach of a rain
storm hundred miles off. 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 i'm
aginaton to believe the story, but
when you consider the miracles of the
ear and hearing you may believe al
most anything.
81 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 it
when you cannot hear faint sounds at
all when things are still, but hear them
a once when they are accompanied by
a great noise. l once read of Il woman
(an authentic c:se) who made her scry-
ant beat Il drum whenever she want
ed 10 listen to anything, for then she
could hear very we'll. There WAS a
man who could not hear except when
the bells We're ringing. 1t is an Old
story that deaf persons hear we'll when
travelling on a railroad, or when rat
tin" over a rough highway i'll a car
ria@e.
There was shoemaker's apprentice
who heard only when his master Was
beating out q sole Oh his iron. The
left ear generally hears better than the
right Some say this is owing to the
ff,,,,,,pp cf 81 o, tIf pi,rbt