WAVE-ACTION IN NATURE. n 



of fine fibres, some radiating from the central part to the circumfer- 

 ence, and others arranged in concentric rings. It is kept gently on 

 the stretch by two small muscles, one of which draws it tighter, and 

 the other loosens it, by acting upon a chain of small bones. We shall 

 not undertake to describe the cui'ious and complicated anatomy of the 

 inner ear the drum, containing air, the curious chain-work of minute vi- 

 brating bones, the labyrinth filled with water containing little crystalline 

 particles and fine elastic bristles, and where the delicate fibres of the 

 auditory nerve commence. " There is also," says Tyndall, " in the laby- 

 rinth a wonderful organ discovered by the Marchese Corti, which is, to 

 all appearance, a musical instrument, with its chords so stretched as to 

 accept vibrations of different periods, and transmit them to the nerve- 

 filaments which traverse the organ. Within the ears of men, and 

 without their knowledge or contrivance, this lute of 3,000 strings (as 

 Kolliker estimates) has existed for ages, accepting the music of the outer 

 world, and rendering it fit for reception by the brain. Each musical 

 tremor which falls upon this organ selects from its tensioned fibres the 

 one appropriate to its own pitch, and throws that fibre into unisonant 

 vibration. And thus, no matter how complicated the motion of the 

 external air may be, those microscopic strings can analyze it, and reveal 

 the constituents of which it is composed." By this wonderful apparatus 

 are all the tremulous movements of the outer world translated to the 

 world within. How the auditory nerve transmits its impressions is 

 not a matter of demonstration, but the probability is great that it 

 transmits them as it receives them as impulses of motion waves of 

 force that are conveyed to the brain and expended in the production of 

 those physical motions which are the material conditions and accompani- 

 ments of consciousness. That the organ of feeling and thought is itself 

 a sphere of vibrations and wave-actions traversing in all directions the 

 millions of microscopic fibres which pervade the encephalon, will be 

 thought absurd by many : but we know that wave-action is a part of 

 the method of Nature ; that it produces the most wonderful effects in 

 all the common forms of matter ; that the brain is a material instru- 

 ment in the closest physical relation with the outward order; and that 

 material changes of some kind within it are the concomitants of its 

 exalted functions. That there should be unity in the whole scheme does 

 not appear irrational. 



Be this as it may, the marvels of what is known are inexhaustible. 

 Could we see what takes place in a room when a tuning-fork is in 

 vibration, giving out a single note, we should behold all the particles 

 of the air agitated in tremulous sympathy, and filling the space with 

 swiftly-expanding spheres of spectral beauty. Or, were the effect pro- 

 duced by several instruments concurrently played, we should see the 

 forms in countless variety carving the air into ever-changing figures 

 of geometrical harmony, and creating the perfect music of geometrical 

 form. Such a revelation is impossible, from the swiftness of movement, 



