Tod^s Anatomy and Physiology of the Organ of Hearing. 375 



which we shall on every occasion refer our readers, that any just 

 idea of its extensive merits can be obtained. 

 [To be continued.] 



The Anatomy and Physiology of the Organ of Hearing ; tvith Remarks 

 on Congenital Deafness, the Diseases of the Ear, some Imperfections 

 of the Organ of Speech, and the proper Treatment of these several 

 Jffections. By David Tod, iVlember of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. London, 1832, 8vo, pp. 147 : hthographs 3. 

 As we do not recollect any work hitherto published which treats 

 exclusively of the Anatomy and Physiology of the Ear, we are in- 

 duced to notice the treatise before us, although it is in the main 

 of a professional nature. From what the author states in his pre- 

 fatory remarks, it appears that he has devoted a considerable por- 

 tion of his time to the investigation of the structure and oeconomy 

 of the Ear ; and from the slight perusal which we have given his 

 treatise, we are inclined to think that he must have paid consider- 

 able attention also to his subject. 



The work commences with a descriptive account of the Anatomy 

 of the Ear, which is treated at once minutely and concisely, and 

 also with something of novelty. We say novelty, for in every ana- 

 tomical treatise which we have read, it is stated that the bones of 

 hearing (Ossicida Auditus) are moved by only three or four muscles; 

 whereas Mr. Tod has described not less than eight or nine muscles 

 belonging to them, with their respective actions; stating his opinion 

 that it is from the various modifications of these actions that the 

 mind is indebted for all the pleasures it receives through the func- 

 tions of the ear. It is certainly surprising that so many important 

 structures of the ear should have been overlooked by such acute 

 anatomists as Morgagni, Scarpa, Soemmerring, Valsalva, Monro, Src. ; 

 and that these distinguished physiologists should have contented 

 themselves, when accounting for the numerous actions which the 

 structures of the tympanum are capable of producing, with referring 

 thera to the oscillatory motions which they supposed the bones of 

 the ear were susceptible of receiving, merely because they were 

 aware that the muscles which they had demonstrated were totally 

 inadequate to the performance of so many modified actions. This 

 circumstance the author adverts to in the form of a note, p. 19, 

 which we cannot do better than quote, as illustrating his views of 

 the anatomy of the ear. 



" Many will probably be inclined to doubt the existence of all 

 the structures which I am about to describe, from their having 

 escaped the notice of every one who has hitherto investigated the 

 anatomy of the ear; but they can all be seen in the different pre- 

 parations in xay possession, and can readily be demonstrated in the 

 ear ofa child, when dissected in the way which I have recommended 

 at the end of this anatomical description. That every structure or 

 organ I describe as muscular is so ia reality, is obvious, not only 

 from its appearance in the recent bone, but also from the articula- 

 tions of the bones admitting of their being moved with facility in 



