THE MEMERAXOUS LABYEINTH. 



(J5I 



further investigation being necessary to inquire into the relative accu- 

 racy of the two views. 



The sjiindle- or fibre-cells and the auditory hairs were first described by Max 

 Schultze,* and bring- to mind the .so-called olfactory cells of the nasal mucous 

 membrane, to be presently described, and the gustatory cells which are met 

 Avith in the special organs of taste. Moreover, as we shall immediately see, cells 

 bearing similar stiiHy projecting hairs are met with also in the cochlea ; and in 

 all these places it is thought probable that there is a dii-ect connection between 

 the hau--bearinj cells and the nerves of special sense, although owing to the 

 extremely delicate nature of the parts and the difficulty of manipulation, 

 such connection has, perhaps, never yet been undoubtedly observed. The 

 minute stmcture of the parts just described has been chiefly worked out 

 in the comparatively large membranous laljyrinth of fishes, but is no doubt 

 more or less similar in all vertebrata. 



The foregoing description, althougn referring more particularly to the 

 characters of the epithelium and mode of nerve distribution in the 

 cristse acusticse of the ampullar, is equally applicable to the raaculue 

 acusticffi of the saccule and utricle. The nerves which are supplied to 

 the macula3 seem, however, to spread out more and to be less markedly 

 limited in their distribution than those which go to the ampullas (see fig. 

 460). Both saccule and utricle contain in their cavity and lying in 

 contact "with the nerve-epithelium a little mass of otoliths, "which, how- 

 ever, do not float free in the fluid, but appear enclosed in a delicate 

 cuticular investment. Otoliths are also found scattered here and there 

 in the ampullae and semicii'cular canals. Their use is not sufficiently 

 known. 



Cochlea. — The membranous cochlea resembles the membranous 



Fiir 4C, 



Fis. 466. 



Fig. 465.— Left Cochlea oi-' a (Jiiild some Weeks Old (Keichert). 'I 

 The drawing was taken from a specimen which had been preserved in alcohol, and was 

 afterwards dned ; a section is made so as to sliow the lamina spiralis, scake, and 

 cochlear canal in each of the three coils : the membranous spiral lamina is preserved, but 

 the appeaiauces connected with the organ of Corti, &c., have been lost from drying. 

 / r fenestra rotunda with its membrane ; s t, scala tympani ; s r, scala vestibuli ; I s, 

 lamina spii-alis ; k, hamulus ; c c, caualis cochleas ; d, opening of the aqueductus 

 cochlere. 



Fi". 466. — Vertical Section of the Cochlea of a F(etal Calf (Kolliker). e 

 In this' specimen the external wall was ossified, but the modiolus and spiral lamina 

 were still cartilaginous ; the section shows in each part of the cochlear tube the two 

 scalte with the intermediate canulis cochleaj and lamina spiraUs. 



* Muller's Archiv, 1858. 



