626 On the Method of judging by the Ear 
but the person, who judges by the ear, has not 
the same advantage in measuring angles: for 
whatever may be the direction of a sound in 
the open air, as soon as it enters the auditory 
passage, it is compelled to follow the course of 
that duct, until it reaches the apparatus in 
which the sense of hearing resides.—In conse~ 
quence of this restriction, all sounds what- 
ever fall on the seat of sensation in the same 
direction; viz. in the ultimate direction of the 
auditory passage. The foregoing circumstance 
must, it should seem, unfit the ear for judging 
of the comparative positions. of sounding bo- 
dies; because, if like effects follow like causes, 
we must conclude, that the ear is incapable. of 
perceiving any angular variation, arising from 
the situations of sounding bodies in respect 
to itself: seeing the pulses, proceeding from 
any number of such bodies any how. disposed, 
are forced, by the construction of theauditory, 
organ, to strike the sensorium under a given 
angle; for, ultimately they all move parallel to 
a given right line.-—The impossibility of ex. 
plaining this problem by analogy, shews the 
necessity of examining the nature of hearing 
itself, in order to discover a proper way of 
investigating the difficulty. 
The great sensibility of the ear is, in my 
judgment, the real cause of the phenomenon, 
