ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 231 



of the external meatus, where it adjoins the mastoid, being 

 in accordance with that deflection, or, in other words, no* 

 exhibiting departure from Ohm's law. 



In such cases, if a rod of specially prepared carbon is held 

 by the patient for a few moments in the right hand so that 

 the body may receive a charge of the form of energy 

 exerted by it, the hand-to-hand deflection will rise to over 

 300 mm. positive, and hearing will usually return at once 

 and remain normal during such time as the charge is 

 retained. 



Halliburton says : " The external and middle ears are 

 conducting ; the internal ear is conducting and receptive. 

 In the external ear the vibrations travel through air ; in 

 the middle ear through solid structures membranes and 

 bones ; and in the internal ear through fluid, first through 

 the perilymph on the far side of the fenestra ovalis, and 

 then the vibrations pass through the basilar membrane 

 and membrane of Reissner, and set the endolymph of the 

 canal of the cochlea in motion." 



With great reluctance I must to some extent disagree. 

 The external ear, in my view, is receptive, in the sense that 

 the transmitter of a telephone is receptive of sound ; the 

 middle ear is receptive and conducting as a microphone 

 receives and conducts ; while the inner ear transforms the 

 vibrations transmitted, and probably amplified, by the 

 middle ear or microphone, into neuro-electrical impulses, 

 and conveys them in that form to the brain. 



One thing, I think, can be regarded as certain. The 

 sensory nerves, and the nerves of special sense, are 

 " closed " circuits. That being so it follows, logically, 

 that the quantity of endolymph or perilymph, or both, in 

 the cochlea must not undergo diminution that is a matter 

 of the chemistry of the body and that the neuro-electrical 

 pressure, or electromotive force, present in those " closed " 

 circuits and energising the endolymph and (or) perilymph 



