MYSTERIES OF THE EAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 11 February 1933, Page 2

MYSTERIES OF THE EAR

The mechanism of the human ear lias been known during long ages, but the manner in which it conveys definite information to the brain is another matter. We are still far from a final announcement, however learnedly we may speak of sound-waves striking upon the drum of the ear and establishing a vibration which is communicated to the brain by a row of white threads attached to a series of wonderfully-articulated bones. That the threads, like the aerials which catch the flutterings of the ether bearing sounds across the Atlantic, and give them rebirth exactly as they were born 3000 miles away, to the last squeak of the clarinet or chirp of the piccolo, translate to our brains the meaning conveyed by the air vibrations which lap against the ear-drum or tympanum does not greatly help us. We call the threads nerves, blit how the tympanum adapts itself by contraction and relaxation to the different pitch of sound without our will intervening we have no idea. We know only that it does.