HEARING 



3896 



HEARNE 



Hearing. Term used for the 

 physiological sensation which is 

 caused by vibrations which excite 

 the auditory nerve. According to 

 Helmholtz's theory there are in the 

 ear certain vibrators which are 

 tuned to varying frequencies of 

 from 30 to 50,000 vibrations a 

 second and which respond to 

 these vibrations. Each vibrator 

 can excite its attached nerve fila- 

 ments, and when it does so an im- 

 pulse, which the brain centres are 

 capable of distinguishing or speci- 

 fying, is transmitted to them. 



There are other implied at- 

 tributes of the vibrators. They 

 must, e.g., be easily set in motion, 

 but quickly brought to rest. They 

 may, by the amplitude of their own 

 vibrations, signify to the brain the 

 intensity of the vibrations im- 

 pinging on them, and evoke the 

 sensations corresponding to loud- 

 ness. If a compound wave of 

 sound falls on the vibrators, they 

 can resolve it into its constituents, 

 each vibrator picking out its sym- 

 pathetic vibration, so that the brain 

 may recognize that the vibrations 

 are fused, yet may be sensible of 

 the constituents of fusion. The 

 theory compares the basilar mem- 

 brane of the ear to the strings of a 

 piano, and it has been found that 

 there are between 16,000 and 

 20,000 cross fibres in the mem- 

 brane, sufficient to provide the 

 necessary combinations to give 

 Ihe sounds we hear. 



There are many difficulties in the 

 acceptance oi tuis theory and a 

 number of others, more or less 

 plausible, have been put forward. 

 The Rutherford-Waller or " tele- 

 phone " theory treats the basilar 

 membrane of the ear as a telephone 

 membrane ; while Ebbinghaus 

 considered that one tone set in 

 motion not only certain vibrators, 

 but others harmonically tuned to 

 them. 



In order to produce movement 

 in these physiological vibrators, 

 the vibrations reaching them must 

 be of sufficient strength. That 

 the necessary strength is extremely 

 small may be realized from the 

 fact that it has been estimated 

 that the ear is affected by atmo- 

 spheric vibrations of a wave length 

 comparable to that of the wave 

 length of light, i.e. the energy re- 

 quired to influence the ear is of the 

 same order of magnitude as that 

 which produces impressions on 

 the retina of the eye. 



The human ear varies in its 

 ability to detect sounds which are 

 produced by a very high number 

 of vibrations, a falling off taking 

 place after middle age ^ but few 

 ears can detect more than 30,000 

 vibrations a second. The lower 



limit is about 30 a second ; the 

 higher usually 38,000 a second. 

 Animals are capable of detecting 

 vibrations that are unheard by 

 human beings, and Francis Galton 

 devised a dog whistle of so high a 

 note of vibration that only his dog 

 could hear it. The Harlequin fly 

 responds to its mate by a vibratory 

 apparatus equivalent to a sound 

 receiver, but the sound is quite 

 beyond human ears. It has been 

 shown by Campbell and Dye that 

 there are " sound waves " of 

 800,000 vibrations a second. 



The sensations of hearing fall 

 into two groups classified as 

 noises and musical sounds. Noises 

 are caused by impulses irregular in 

 intensity or duration; musical 

 notes by periodic and regular vibra- 

 tions. In musical tones are three 

 characteristics : intensity, pitch, 

 and timbre or quality. Intensity 

 depends on the amplitude of the 

 vibration; pitch, on the number 

 of vibrations in a given time. A 

 high note has many vibrations ; a 

 low note few. Quality, which is 

 the characteristic by which a tone 

 is identified as proceeding from a 

 particular instrument, or a par- 

 ticular human voice, depends on 

 the fact that many waves of sound 

 are compound waves, built up of 

 other waves. The ear has the 

 power of resolving and classifying 

 these waves. Hearing is apparently 

 very little affected by the use of 

 one or both ears, though un- 

 doubtedly one ear corrects the 

 faults of the other. G. T. Fechner 

 has suggested that the ears per- 

 ceive sounds at different pitches, 

 so enabling a judgement to be 

 formed as to the direction and, 

 in many cases, distance from which 

 sounds are coming. 



Hearing is not universal among 

 animals, there being no reason to 

 suppose such a sense among the 

 lowest vertebrates, for example. 

 Spiders, earthworms, Crustacea, 

 etc., have been supposed to show 

 responses to auditory stimuli. In- 

 sects have not been proved to 

 show any sense of hearing, though 

 fishes, which possess a structure 

 analogous to the ear, respond to 

 the vibrations of a tuning fork. 



Though such animals as horses, 

 dogs, and the higher vertebrates 

 generally have a sense of hearing, 

 its degree and range has not yet 

 been fully ascertained. See Ear : 

 Sound. 



Hearing. In law, term used for 

 the judicial procedure in any law 

 case. Strictly speaking, the term 

 is usually confined to equity cases, 

 but in common usage it applies to 

 the hearing of any lawsuit. The 

 word is also used for a sitting of 

 any body or commission appointed 



Lafcadio Hearn, 



Writer on 



Japan 



to hear the evidence for and 

 against any proposition. See Pro- 

 cedure; Trial. 



Hearn, LAFCADIO '(1856-1904). 

 Author. Born in Leucadia (Santa 

 Maura), one of the Ionian Islands, 

 he was the son 

 of an Irish 

 Army doctor 

 by a Greek 

 mother. He be- 

 came a journal - 

 1st in the 

 U.S.A., but in 

 1891 went to 

 Japan, where 

 he was profes- 

 sor of English in 

 the university 

 of Tokyo, 1896-1903. He married a 

 Japanese wife and became natural- 

 ised as a Japanese subject. Hearn 

 wrote with singular acuteness and 

 charm on the people, manners, cus- 

 toms, and spirit of his adopted coun- 

 try. His works include Stray Leaves 

 from Strange Literature, 1884 ; 

 Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, 1894; 

 Out of the East, 1895; Kokoro, 1890; 

 Gleanings in Buddha Fields, 1897; 

 Exotics and Retrospections, 1898; 

 Ghostly Japan, 1899 ; Shadowings, 

 1900 ; A Japanese Miscellany, 1901 ; 

 Kotto, or Japanese Curios, 1902 ; 

 Japan : an Attempt at Interpreta- 

 tion, 1904. He died Sept, 23, 1904. 

 See Life and Letters of Lafcadio 

 Hearn, E. Bisland, 1906. 



Hearne, THOMAS (1678-1735). 

 English antiquary. Born at Little- 

 field Green, Berkshire, he was the 

 son of the 

 parish clerk of 

 White Walt- 

 ham. Com- 

 pelled to go 

 out to work as 

 a boy, he found 

 a patron who 

 sent him to 

 school at Bray 



and later to S. Thomas Hearne, 

 Edmund Hall, English antiquary 

 Oxford, where after graduating he 

 was appointed an assistant in the 

 Bodleian Library. In 1712 he be- 

 came second keeper, but four years 

 later was compelled to relinquish 

 his position owing to his refusal to 

 take the oath of allegiance to the 

 Hanoverians. He died at Oxford, 

 June 10, 1735, and was buried there. 

 His principal works are Reli- 

 quiae Bodleianae, 1703, and a 

 Collection of Curious Discourses 

 on English Antiquities, 1720. He 

 edited Leland's Itinerary, 1710-12, 

 and many other works. Extracts 

 from his voluminous diaries were 

 published as The Remains of 

 Thomas Hearne, 3 vols., 1869, and 

 the publication of the whole was 

 begun by the Oxford Historical 

 Society in 1885. 



