MUSICAL EAR. 193 



turn theirs backward. In a few instances, men, like 

 quadrupeds, have had the power of turning their ears back- 

 ward or forward, at pleasure. 



MUSICAL EAR. 



600. That learned anatomist, Sir Everard Home, con- 

 sidered the ear-drum, with its radiated muscular-fibres, as 

 a sort of monochord, or rather, perhaps, the string of the 

 monochord, " of which the tensor muscles are the screw, 

 giving the necessary tension to make the string perform 

 its proper scale of vibrations, and the radiated muscle 

 acting upon the membrane like the moveable bridge of 

 the monochord, adjusting it to the vibrations required to 

 be produced." The same philosopher says, that " the 

 difference between a musical ear and one that is too im- 

 perfect to distinguish the different notes of music will 

 appear to arise entirely from the greater or less nicety 

 with which the muscle of the malleus renders the mem- 

 brane capable of being truly adjusted. If the tension is 

 perfect, all the variations . produced by the action of the 

 radiated muscle will be equally correct, and the ear truly 

 musical." 



601. This view of the subject would make a musical ear 

 little more than a fine piece of mechanism, in which the 

 mind has no participation. But we cannot believe that 

 this is the true doctrine ; for although some quadrupeds, 

 it is said, will listen to the strains of music with seeming 

 pleasure, yet it is most clearly through his intellect that 

 man enjoys that high degree of gratification which 

 music is capable of conferring. It is therefore in the 

 brain itself that which is called the " musical ear " is 

 situated, the mechanical apparatus of audition being, in 

 this respect, merely the instrument by which the sono- 

 rous undulations constituting melody, are conveyed to 

 the soul. 



What was Sir E. Home's opinion with respect to the action of the 

 ear-drum in forming a musical car ? WheYe is it said the musical ear is 

 situated ? 



17 



