200 SENSE OF HEARING. 



A single case, detailed by Sir Astley Cooper, 1 prostrates the whole 

 of the ingenious fabric erected by Sir Everard. Allusion has already 

 been made to the old established fact, that the membrane of the tym- 

 panum may be destroyed without loss of hearing necessarily following. 

 Sir Astley was consulted by a gentleman, who had been attacked, at 

 the age of ten years, with inflammation and suppuration in his left ear, 

 which continued discharging matter for several weeks. In the space 

 of about twelve months after the first attack, symptoms of a similar 

 kind took place in the right ear, from which matter issued for a con- 

 siderable time. The discharge, in each instance, was thin, and 

 extremely offensive ; and in it, bones or pieces of bones were observable. 

 In consequence of these attacks he became deaf, and remained so for 

 three months. The hearing then began to return ; and in about ten 

 months from the last attack, he was restored to the state he was in 

 when the case was published. Having filled his mouth with air, he 

 closed his nostrils and contracted the cheeks; the air, thus compressed, 

 was heard to rush through the meatus auditorius with a whistling noise, 

 and the hair, hanging from the temples, became agitated by the cur- 

 rent of air that issued from the ear. When a candle was applied, the 

 flame was agitated in a similar manner. Sir Astley passed a probe 

 into each ear, and thought the membrane of the left side was totally 

 destroyed, as the probe struck against the\ petrous portion of the tem- 

 poral bone. The space, usually occupied by the membrana tympani, 

 was found to be an aperture without one trace of membrane remaining. 

 On the right side, also, a probe could be passed into the cavity of the 

 tympanum ; but, on this side, some remains of the circumference of the 

 membrane could be discovered, with a circular opening in the centre, 

 about a quarter of an inch in diameter. Yet this gentleman was not 

 only capable of hearing everything that was said in company, but was 

 nicely susceptible to musical tones ; " he played well on the flute, and 

 had frequently borne a part in a concert ; and he sang with much taste 

 and perfectly in tune." 



But, independently of these partial objections, the views which assign 

 musical ear and acquired language to the auditory apparatus, appear 

 liable to others that are insuperable. The man who is totally devoid 

 of musical ear hears the sound distinctly. His sense of hearing may 

 be as acute as that of the best musician. It is his appreciation that 

 is defective. He hears the sound; but is incapable of communicating 

 it to others. The organ of appreciation is in this, as in every other 

 sense the brain. The physical part of the organ may modify the 

 impression that has to be made upon the nerve of sense ; the latter 

 is compelled to transmit the impression as it receives it; and it is not 

 until the brain has acted, that perception takes place, or that any idea 

 of the physical cause of the impression is excited in the mind. If, 

 from faulty organization, such idea be not formed in the case of mu- 

 sical tones, the individual is said not to possess a musical ear ; but the 

 fault lies in his cerebral conformation. We do not observe the slight- 

 est relation between musical talent and delicacy of hearing. The best 



1 Philosoph. Transact, for 1800, p. 151, and for 1801, p. 435. 



