| Show WONDERS OF THE EAR the human ear said a scientist to a S star y or reporter is an organ the true inwardness of which the physicians hive have never been able to get at they can examine the interior of the eye with ease by throwing into its ito dark chamber a ray of light reflected from a little mirror and of late they have found it possible even to see the gray matter of the brain by looking through the little canal by which the optic nerve enters the cavity behind the nose they inspect with the aid or of a light placed far back in the mouth they have no difficulty in seeing into the stomach b by Y an electric apparatus the intestines likewise are readily enough investigated and the bladder also but the ear as to its internal arrangements is unapproachable it is even impossible to dissect it satisfactorily after death for the reason that the parts collapse at once when the vital spark leaves the body the drum in a living person bars bare the way to and even though it be pierced the winding passages beyond cannot be seen through on the other side of the drum are the three little bones bonee the mallet and the stirrup which act upon each other as aft levers levere the drum acts am a sort of buffer and the mallet immediately in contact with it conveys the sound waves through the anvil and the stirrup to the cochlea a spiral shell shaped chamber just behind and above the external pening of the ear the shell is composed of filaments of the auditory nerve coiled spirally and each one erect and waving tremulously I 1 in response to the slightest wave of sound they carry the sound impressions directly to the brain and so delicate to is their sensitiveness that the hearer perceives not only the derree depree of ef loudness but even the finest quality of a sound the harmony of tones and the distance from which it comes the moment that life becomes extinct however the spiral shell of nerves ool collapses and the marvelous marve loun organ to Is a dead thing unsatisfactory to the investigating vesti gating anatomist if only it bad been found possible to examine the internal structure of the living ear aural surgery might perhaps amount to something today the science of treating the eye was born when helmholtz invented the simple instrument called the for inspecting its interior there are plenty of ear doctors and people pay big prices for being treated by them for deafness but did you ever know of a me case where the patten patient t was really much benefited by anything he could do I 1 have known dozens of deaf persons who have persistently sought relief at the hands of aural specialists but not one of them has been cured or materially helped simply because science has achieved hardly anything in that branch of knowledge washington glon star |
