436 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



glands or follicles are very abundant, and in infants secrete free- 

 ly their peculiar fluid. When a slight inflammation occurs, 

 this discharge is frequently purulent without erosion. A dupli- 

 cation of the skin, containing a delicate granulated adeps with 

 some~fibrous matter, constitutes the lobe of the ear. 



The skin, after lining the concha, descends into the meatus 

 auditorius, and lines it also as well as the external face of the 

 membrane of the tympanum. It adheres moderately to the 

 cartilaginous part of the tub^, and more tenaciously to its fibrous 

 portions: between it and the latter are found many small reddish 

 bodies, generally oval, the Glandulae Ceruminosae,* from which 

 proceeds the earwax.j- The skin is extremely thin in the bony 

 meatus, adheres closely to its periosteum, and is highly sensible: 

 where it forms the exterior layer of the membrane of the tym- 

 panum, it may be detached from the latter with the slightest 

 force, and seems to be converted almost entirely into cuticle. 

 A slight maceration or incipient putrefaction frequently enables 

 one to draw the cuticle out entire from the meatus, so that it 

 looks in shape like the finger of a small glove. 



The derrnoid lining of the meatus, at its external orifice, is 

 studded with fine hairs, which serve to keep out small bodies 

 that may be floating in the air. A considerable number of 

 small pores are also seen in it, which are the orifices of the 

 ducts of the ceruminous glands. The discharge of the latter, 

 when first secreted, is thin and white : by evaporation, it be- 

 comes* thick and yellow, and by accumulating obstructs the 

 passage. 



There are several small muscles situated on the external ear, 

 which are for the most part so feebly developed that they cannot 

 always be found, and when they do exist they seem more like 

 the rudiments of what is well marked in animals, than intended 

 for a special purpose in the human body. 



1. The Helicis Major is an oblong fasciculus, situated on the 



* Duverney, CEuvres Anatomiques. 



j- They are placed, according to Buchanan, for the major part, in the middle 

 and superior face of the meatus, and their number he estimates at from one to twQ 

 thousand. Physiolog 1 . illustrations. 1825. 



