98 GOOD HEALTH 



The only means we have of knowing anything about 

 the machinery that does all this hearing is what people 

 tell us who have seen what there is on the other side of 

 the eardrum. 



First they find three tiny bones that stretch from the 

 underside of the drum to the next part of the hearing 

 machine, which is called the inside ear. Here there are 

 slender tubes full of liquid, within bone channels full of 

 liquid, and a special tube in a bony case that looks like 

 a snail shell. 



This inside ear is the most important part of the hear- 

 ing machine, because the nerves which report the sound 

 to the brain are here. It is so small that you could put 

 it into a box one inch square, but it is more precious 

 than any box of gold, and the bony case that holds it is 

 stronger than any watch case. Every sound that we 

 hear whether it be a clap of thunder or the whisper of 

 our dearest friend goes through the eardrum, the tiny 

 bones, the liquid, and the nerves, to the brain ; and that 

 is what we call hearing. 



Our ears may, however, get out of order. I know a 

 boy who is deaf whenever he catches cold, and with each 

 cold he is a little deafer than he was the time before. 

 The worst of it is that the cold sometimes gives him an 

 abscess in his ear. He had that sort of cold last winter, 

 and I never saw any boy suffer such terrible pain. At 

 last, however, the pain went away and he felt quite well 



