MUSICAL EAR. 



behind them turn theirs backward. In a few instances, 

 men, like quadrupeds, have had the power of turning their 

 ears backwards, or forwards at pleasure. 



MUSICAL EAR. 



That learned anatomist, Sir Everard Home, consid- 

 ered the Ear-drum, with its radiated muscular fibres as 

 a sort of monochord, or rather perhaps the string of the 

 monochord, " of which the tensor muscles are the 

 screw, giving the necessary tension to make the string 

 perform its proper scale of vibrations, and the radia- 

 ted muscle acting upon the membrane like the moveable 

 bridge of the monochord, adjusting it to the vibrations 

 required to be produced." The same philosopher says, 

 " that the difference between a musical Ear, and one that 

 is too imperfect to distinguish the different notes of mu- 

 sic, will appear to arise entirely from the greater or less 

 nicety with which the muscle of the malleus renders 

 the membrane capable of being truly adjusted. If the 

 tension is perfect, all the variations produced by the 

 action of the radiated muscle will be equally correct, 

 and the Ear truly musical" 



This view of the subject would make a musical Ear, 

 little more than a fine piece of mechanism, in which the 

 mind has no participation. But we cannot believe that 

 this is the true doctrine, for although some Quadrupeds, it 

 is said, will listen to the strains of music, with seeming 

 pleasure, yet it is most clearly through his intellect that 

 man enjoys that high degree of gratification, which 

 music is capable of conferring. It is therefore in the 

 brain itself, that, what is called the " musical Ear " is 

 situated, the mechanical apparatus of audition being in 

 this respect, merely the instrument by which the sono- 

 rous undulations constituting melody are conveyed to 

 the soul. 



What was Sir E. Home's opinion with respect to the action of the ear- 

 drum in forming a musical ear 1 Where is it said the musical ear is situ- 

 ated 1 



17* 



