External auditory meatus

“ Auditory phenomena may be divided into two categories: provoked automatisms, and spontaneous automatisms or clairaudience. The first may be considered as hallucinations induced by diverse methods. The [182] simplest method consists in the use of certain shells, horns, trumpets, or, in a word, any object capable of augmenting and allowing the perception of those external or internal sounds, which are not usually perceptible to the hearing. This is what is observed particularly with some sea-shells. When we apply them to the ear, we hear a murmur or a slight rumbling sound. ”

“ Disease of the ear may obviously act in the same way, but, even apart from actual disease, various nervous disturbances favour the production of auditory hallucinations during sleep, and, in marked cases, even awake.
We may dream of listening to music in the absence of all external sounds having any musical character. In such cases, no doubt, the actual conditions [78] within the auditory mechanism are suggesting music to the brain, but the resulting music seems usually to be less definite, less rememberable, than when it forms around the nucleus of an external series of sounds. ”

“ In all cases of congenital deafness it will be found that there exists some disorganization of the organ of hearing itself, some obstruc tion in the internal ear or compression of the auditory nerve, whereby the vibrations of the ear are prevented from pro ducing the required effect upon the internal parts of the ear, or from being communicated to the brain. ”

“ Everything below or extremely above our accustomed vibratory limits is to us non existent. You are aware that there are sounds so high in pitch or frequency that the human auditory system cannot hear them. Also there are objects that emit vibrations whose low frequency makes them invisible to the eye. ”

“ It is a very common ear disorder. The opening into the ear is about an inch long, or a little more, and is separated from that part of the ear within, which is known as the middle ear, by the eardrum membrane. The drum membrane is a thin, skinlike membrane stretched tightly across the bottom of the external opening in the ear or auditory canal, and shuts it off completely from the middle ear within, and in this way protects the middle ear from the entrance of germs, dust, and water, but only secondarily aids hearing. ”

“ And though, in the case of hearing, we cannot so clearly trace the connexion of cause and effect, yet as we see that the auditory apparatus is one fitted to intensify those vibrations constituting sound, and to convey them to a receptacle containing liquid in which nerves are immersed, it can scarcely be doubted that the sensation of sound proximately results from molecular re-arrangements caused in these nerves by the vibrations of the liquid: knowing, as we do, that the re-arrangement of molecules is in all cases aided by agitation. ”

“ If this process is going on in the same medium (the air) in which our ear is situated, the membrane will at every condensation be forced toward the hollow of the drum, and at every rarefaction will move itself in the opposite direction.
These vibrations necessitate a similar motion of the auditory ossicles, and thereby a transference to the auditory nerves is effected.
The greater the condensation of a sound-conducting medium at any given moment, the greater also will be the amplitude of vibration of the membrane and of the auditory ossicles and of their action ”

“ Now, as the vibrating of the membrana tympani are synchronous to those of the air, they may either excite synchronous ones in the particles of the auditory nerves, and thus be distinguished from each other in respect of frequency by the mind; or if every pulse of the air, and oscillation of the membrana tympani, excite innumerable infinitesimal vibrations in the auditory nerves, the renewal of these at different intervals according to the different gravity or acuteness of the sound will, however, afford a like criterion. ”

“ We all have our limits, and that limit may be quickly found by these whistles in every case. The facility of hearing shrill sounds depends in some degree on the position of the whistle, for it is highest when it is held exactly opposite the opening of the ear. Any roughness of the lining of the auditory canal appears to have a marked effect in checking the transmission of rapid vibrations when they strike the ear obliquely. ”

“ If the patient before operation hears conversation at a greater distance than 12 feet he should be told that the hearing power may be reduced to this amount. If, however, there be considerable deafness, due to polypi or granulations blocking up the tympanic cavity and auditory canal, the hearing power may be improved by the operation. The ultimate hearing depends on the condition of the stapes within the fenestra ovalis: if it remains freely movable, the hearing power may be extremely good. ”

“ If a person on blowing the nose violently, feel a swelling in the ear, from the membrane of the tympanum being forced outwards, the tube is open; and though the tube be closed, if the beating of a watch placed between the teeth, or pressed against the side of the head, cannot be heard, the operation cannot relieve, as the sensibility of the auditory nerve must have been destroyed. In a closed Eustachian tube, there is no noise in the head, like that accompanying nervous deafness. ”

“ Like the sense of sight and the sense of smell, that of hearing, even in its simplest grades, serves to bring the organism into relation with more or less distant bodies, so long as they are sufficiently sonorous to transmit the so-called "sound" vibrations through water or air to the sensitive organs which become attuned to receive such impressions.
An auditory organ does not seem to be present at all—certainly none has as yet been detected or inferred to exist—in many of the lower forms of life; while in other animals, though inferred to exist, it remains as yet unrecognized. ”

“ The auricle of the human ear presents many irregularities of surface. If these irregularities are abolished by filling them up with a soft material such as wax or oil, leaving the entrance to the canal free, experiment shows that the intensity of sounds is weakened, and that there is more difficulty in judging of their direction. When waves of sound strike the auricle, they are partly reflected outwards, while the remainder, impinging at various angles, undergo a number of reflections so as to be directed into the auditory canal. ”

“ A distinction is generally made in physics between sound and noise. Noise affects our tympanic membrane as an irregular succession of shocks and we are conscious of a jarring of the auditory apparatus; whereas a musical sound is smooth and pleasant because the tympanic membrane is thrown into successive periodic vibrations to which the auditory receptor (sense organ of hearing) has been attuned. To produce musical sounds, a body must vibrate with the regularity of a pendulum, but it must be capable of imparting sharper or quicker shocks to the air than the pendulum. ”

“ The form of passive motion which acts most naturally here is that of sound. This form of passive motion, augmented as it is by means of the ear-trnmpet, acting frequently and systematically upon the ear, prevents further anchylosis, and the fatty degeneration of the auditory nerve that comes from desuetude. This, of course, tends to a permanent improvement of the hearing, and in some cases patients come to hear without the trumpet.
Preparations for the New York meeting of the American Association, to begin August 10th, are being carried vigorously forward. ”

“ Probably all the laity, so to speak, when first they realize that their hearing is diminished, believe that the wax has accumulated and has blocked the auditory canal. The sensation to them is certainly one of obstruction, and they seem justified in picking at the canal of the ear in attempting to remove the obstructing substance. ”

“ It may be cured, particularly at its commencement, by the application of such stimulants as are capable of exciting a discharge from the ceruminous glands; for which purpose thev should be introduced into the meatus auditorius.
In some cases of this kind, where the auditory nerve has been in some degree torpid, or rather perhaps where there has been a kind of paralysis, or want of action, in the muscles which brace the membrane of the tympanum, and keep the chain of bones in their proper state; a person has not been able to hear, except during a considerable noise. ”

“ Bezold has examined a large number of human ears of different ages and indicates that after the fiftieth year there is not only a successive decrease in the number of the approximately normal-hearing, but there is a successively growing increase in the degree of auditory limitation which the ear experiences with increasing age. ”

“ Of those persons to whom music is but a confused mass of sounds, we may remark that almost all sing false. We are forced to think that they have the auditory apparatus so made, as to receive but brief and short undulation, or that the two ears not being on the same diapason, the difference in length and sensibility of these constituent parts, causes them to transmit to the brain only an obscure and undetermined sensation, like two instruments played in neither the same key nor the same measure, and which can produce no continuous melody. ”

“ Imagine a music machine so cunningly constructed and adjusted as not only to sound each note and chord in its proper sequence and relation, but to regulate also the duration of the sound vibration. If this machine were operated in such a manner as to play, in a single second of time, the entire overture of an opera which would normally occupy half an hour, we should hear only an unintelligible noise a second long. This would be due to no defect in the sound-producing mechanism, but to the limitations of the sound-receiving mechanism, our auditory apparatus. ”

“ The auditory center, A, receives the nervous impulses started by sound. When it is aroused by impulses coming from the ears, the sensation of sound occurs; but when it is aroused by nerve-currents, not from the ears, but from other parts of the brain, we have only the memory of sound. For a word to be understood, the auditory center alone is not sufficient. The sound must awaken the memories of other sensations. ”

“ By every condensation the tympanum of our ear is pressed inwards, by every rarefaction it is pressed outward and thus the tympanum performs oscillations like a pendulum. The smaller or greater number of the oscillations made in a second gives us by help of the small bones in our ear and the auditory nerve the idea of a higher or lower tune. ”

“ An auditory sensation lasts a short time after the cessation of the exciting cause, so that a number of separate vibrations, each capable of exciting a distinct sensation if heard alone, may succeed each other so rapidly that they are fused into a single sensation. If we listen to the puffs of a syren, or to vibrating tongues of low pitch, the single sensation is usually produced by about 30 or 35 vibrations per second; but when we listen to beats of considerable intensity, produced by two adjacent tones of sufficiently high pitch, the ear may follow as many as 132 intermissions per second. ”

“ In disease of the middle ear the attacks are continuous rather than paroxysmal. If the disease is in the middle or internal ears, loud noises are generally heard, but if the disease is in the external ear, the noises are generally absent, and the vertigo of less degree but continuous. The prognosis varies with the location of the disease, but is always serious.
Human rumination has been known for many years. Bartholinus, Paullinus, Blanchard, Bonet, the Ephemerides, Fabricius Hildanus, Horstius, Morgagni, Peyer, Rhodius, Vogel, Salmuth, Percy, Laurent, and others describe it. ”

“ One source of danger to the hearing consists in lowering the temperature of the ear, especially by the introduction of cold water into the auditory canal. Every one is familiar with the unpleasant sensation of distension and the confusion of sounds which accompany the filling of the ear with water when bathing: the weight of the {225}water within it really distends the membrane, and the cold chills the adjacent sensitive parts. It is not surprising, therefore, that the frequent introduction of cold water and its continued presence in the ear enfeeble the sense of hearing. ”

“ If the stricture or point of occlusion of the auditory canal is limited and composed of membranous and fibrous tissues, a good result can be usually obtained, and there is no reason why complete recovery of hearing should not take place if the labyrinth and tympanic cavity are normal. ”

“ Research has shown us that hearing loss can sometimes be alleviated, corrected, or best of all, prevented. Scientific investigators supported by the Federal government's National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and by professional societies and voluntary health organizations are learning more about how the auditory system works, and what can go wrong and why. Innovative programs in research, education, and prevention have long been conducted and supported by many voluntary agencies working on behalf of the hearing impaired. ”

“ This end-organ in the cochlea may be compared very fitly to the telephone which receives the message, and that portion of the brain where the auditory tract ends, to the telephone at the distant end of the path, the listener there representing consciousness. The auditory path within the brain is long and complicated, there being, in fact, many way-stations through which the message passes before it reaches the final one. ”