The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-04-25
OUR SENSII1 4. EARS
The PECULIAR MECHANISM oF5THESE
5WoNDERFuLo ORGANS.

THE. PECULIAR MECHANISM FTHEsEf
WONDERFUL ORGANS.
How They Are AEected By, the sh ocls
or tn e DtscharlEe of Big Guns-The
Ola way In which some Ears Are
Played Upon by Various Sounds.
Whenever a 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
thirteen inch rife, the more sensitive
among the officers and sailors place
cork or chunk of rubber between their
teeth when there Is about to be dis
charge Men have been known to
bleed in the ear from the effects OF the
conclusion caused by much smaller
gun than q thirteen inch bore. One
of the officers at Fort Hancock was
asked to explain the philosophy of ele-
waiting oneself on the toes, placing I'M
gers in ears and opening the mouth.
standing on the toes is like stand
141s5 Oh AAG3, AAS AAPAA~Ns
standing on the heel or full sole of
the foot is like standing on Il solid. BY
placing spring between your person
and u violent force the impact is so
weakened that you are unlikely to suf-
fer in fury In the firing Of heavy ord
nance n 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 1nsresS
of the air which is set in intense vi
bration by the discharge. Many
careless soldier has had his tympanic
membrane destroyed by neglecting to
close up his ears, either with his I'm
gers or some foreign substance.
lit 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
on the external side OF the tympanfc
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 oridces.
Nothing In anatomy Is more beautiful
than the arrangement Of the ear.
have made u study Of it 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 fbers, discovered
by Corti and bearing his name They
apparently form the nominations or
the filamcnts of the auditory nerve.
Helmholtz, the greatest authority on
acoustics the world has produced. de-.
clared that each one Of these fbers is
nttuned to Il 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 4 Won
dreus instrument for reprod ucinS every
note that the ear can distinguish. The
cochiea may be called an aeolian harp
of 5000 strings that move in sympathy
to all the sounds Of creation
MANY ears are incapable of bearing
very high sounds. Many persons are
deaf to the chirping of crickets. and
some cannot hear the twitterinE OF
sparrows. There was said to be
formed to Il 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 null. BY closing the small ear
he could hear the approach OF RAIN
storm n hundred miles off. BY closing
the big one he could hear fly walking
Oh the ceiling. Isn't that romantic
enough for you? 1t takes vivid i'm
agination to believe the story. but
when you consider the miracles OF the
ear and hearing you may believe al
most anything
II do not doubt that there are many
sounds so faint that our ea rs are dear
to them. but they make sweet music
for others. You know what pnracousls
is, I 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. I once read OF woman
IAN authentic case) who made her SerT-
ant beat drum whenever she want
ed to 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 deo persons hear well when