282 ANIMAL MECHANISM. 



Taking it for granted, that the reader has already a 

 thorough knowledge of the doctrine of acoustics, diacous- 

 tics and catacoustics, we shall steadily pursue that kind 

 of popular philosophical examination of the ear, which 

 has been the endeavor in a preceding essay on the me- 

 chanism of the eye. 



Those beings only, which are denominated locomotive, 

 having the power of moving themselves from one place 

 to another, have an ear. The circumstance of the exist- 

 ence of this faculty, presupposes some sort of auditory 

 contrivance, by which the creature can be made con- 

 scious of the certain existence of near foes, or its friends 

 and species. Without this sense, of such vast importance 

 to man, inferior tribes would be constantly exposed to 

 dangers and even destruction as they would necessa- 

 rily be obliged to move towards an apprehended evil, to 

 see it, in order to be certain. Nature has not been ne- 

 glectful in granting the necessary means of happiness to 

 every being, in proportion to its wants in the sphere in 

 which it is destined to live; nor partial to man, in the 

 development of all his senses, to the exclusion of other 

 animals, whose physical propensities, necessities and cir- 

 cumstances are of as much importance to them, in the 

 scale of existence, as his own. 



EXTERNAL EAR.* 



That appendage termed auricula, pinna or cxterna 

 ear, peculiar to all the warm blooded quadrupeds, divest- 

 ed of the skin, is a thin, delicate piece of cartilage, quite 

 elastic, and bearing some resemblance, in this respect, to 

 parchment. On its outer surface, on such as carry the 

 ear erect, it is generally concave, but thrown into deep 

 semicircular grooves, which terminate in one large dish, 

 surrounding the canal that enters the bones, called concha, 

 because it resembles a shell. The lines/or eminences 

 lying between the furrows, have definite names, as helix, 

 antihelix, tragusand antitragus, and lastly, the fat pendu- 

 lous portion, on the under edge of the ear, in which trin- 

 kets are worn, occasionally, in civilized society, in hum- 

 ble imitation of genuine savage life, the lobus. 



* So called from aura, air. 



