MEMBEAXA TYMPANI. 203 



panic membrane, when these would be too delicate to be ob- 

 served by the eye or ear, in a membrane exposed and sub- 

 jected to similar influences. This point must be accepted as 

 probable ; and it cannot be proven by direct experiment. If 

 this be true, the most complex combinations of sound pro- 

 duced by an orchestra might be actually reproduced by the 

 tympanic membrane, if this membrane were accurately tuned 

 to the fundamental tone. 



The arrangement of the muscles and bones of the middle 

 ear admits of the possibility of tuning the membrana tym- 

 pani with exquisite nicety. These muscles are sometimes so 

 far under the control of the will that we can tighten the 

 membrane to its limit by a voluntary effort ; the muscles 

 are of the striated variety, and are capable of rapid action ; 

 they are supplied with motor filaments from the cerebro- 

 spinal system ; the ear is fatigued by long attention to par- 

 ticular tones; persons not endowed with what is termed a 

 musical ear cannot appreciate slight distinctions between dif- 

 ferent tones ; the ear is capable of education in the appre- 

 ciation of pitch and in following rapid successions of tones ; 

 and, in short, there are many points in the mechanism of the 

 transmission of musical sounds in the ear that seem to in- 

 volve muscular action. In the larynx, we are conscious of 

 differences in the tension of the vocal cords only from differ- 

 ences in the character and pitch of the sounds produced ; in 

 the eye, we are conscious of the contraction of the muscle of 

 accommodation from the fact that an effort enables us to see 

 objects distinctly at different distances ; and it is not impos- 

 sible that, under ordinary conditions, the consciousness of 

 contractions of the muscles of the middle ear may be revealed 

 only by the fact of the correct appreciation of certain musical 

 tones. Some persons can educate the ear so as to acquire 

 what is called the faculty of absolute pitch ; that is, without 

 the aid of a tuning-fork or any musical instrument, they can 

 give the exact musical value of any given tone. A possible 

 explanation of this is that such persons may have educated 



