THE MEMBRANOUS LABYRINTH 395 



crests of the three ampullae, to the patch ou the utricle, 

 and to the patch on the saccule. In each crest and each 

 patch the epithelium is thickened and modified, and 

 altliough the crests are slightly different in structure from 

 the patches, the general features are the same m all. 

 Whereas over the rest of the inside of the membranous 

 labyrinth the epithelium consists (Fig. 125, e) of a single 

 layer of low, rather flat cells, in the crests and patches 

 the cells lie several deep, and are of a peculiar form. 

 Some are conical or cylindrical, and some are spindle- 

 shaped, and either the one or the other, or, according to 

 some authors, both, bear stiff hair-like filaments (Fig. 125, 

 a.h, a.h.) projecting into the cavity of the labyrinth. 

 These filaments, often called auditory hairs, appear at first 

 sight to resemble cilia, but they are stiff, and unlike cilia 

 have no active movement of their own. They are longer 

 and more conspicuous in the crests of the ampulliB than 

 in the patches of the utricle and saccule. The fibres 

 of the auditory nerve may be traced through the connec- 

 tive tissue wall of the crest or patch into the epithelium, 

 where they break up into a delicate network among the 

 cells (Fi" 125, A, B, b) ; but it is not as yet exactly de- 

 termined how the filaments of this network end, whether 

 they actually join the conical cells, or the spindle cells, or 

 merely lie in contact with them. 



lium- n fibres of the auditoiH- nerve passing into the aiaditory epithe- 

 lium ' "'epithelium intermediate between the auditory epithelium and 

 the ordinary epithelium of the rest of the ampulla. j-i.„„ 



A and B Diafn-ams to illustrate the character of the cells of the and tory 

 epUhelium/aid the two views taken as to the relation of the auditory 

 E to the cells. In both A and B, I is the auditory epithelium, II the 

 connecive tissue on which it rests, and a, a fibre of the auditory nerve 

 parsing through 11, and dividing into fine branching fi aments m , at 6 

 • P?n T cc cylindrical cell bearing auditory hairs, a.h: e^.ch cell bears 

 a group of fine hairs which adhere together as a long narrow cone , sp.c, 

 spindle-shaped cells, not bearing hairs. ,„j„,i1p «harpd cells 



lu B, c.c, cvlindrical cells not bearing hairs spc, ^P>"'^l';-«^'*l,f,'*^'^?['^ 

 bearing the auditory hair a.U, and supposed to be connected with the 

 nprvc-filaments : f. other supporting cells. . 



In both A and B, the fibre n. of the auditory nerve passes mto the 

 epithelium, ai.d cuds in hue brauchcs, 6. 



