332 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



cessarily to vibration. But we perceive that in 

 addition an appropriate nerve and distinct organ 

 are bestow^ed. There is here, in the cuttle-fish, 

 very httle apparatus in this organ, and it proves 

 that the essential part of the ear is the nerve sus- 

 ceptible of sound, and not the exterior apparatus. 

 Some sixty years ago, learned men in Italy wish- 

 ed to ascertain whether the lobster had the organ 

 of hearing or not. The celebrated Professor 

 Scarpa, then a young man, undertook to decide 

 that matter; not by looking for the exterior organ, 

 but by examining the brain and the nerves which 

 go out from it. Finding that there was a nerve 

 which stood in the relation of an acoustic nerve, 

 he traced it onward, and found it terminating in 

 a little sac containing fluid, and open to the in- 

 fluence of the atmosphere by a small membrane 

 which crossed the mouth of it. This was the just 

 and philosophical mode of proceeding. There 

 being, in fact, nothing in the brain itself, with res- 

 pect to its exposure to tremours or motion, diffier- 

 ent from the auditory nerve, if that nerve had had 

 merely to convey a vibration to the brain, it would 

 have been superfluous, as the brain itself would 

 have vibrated. Hence we perceive that an en- 

 dowment of a nerve which shall be susceptible of 

 the sense of sound is necessary, and consequently 

 it is the primary and essential part of the organi- 

 zation. How the motions of sound shall reach it 

 is another question. 



Let us now carry along with us the fact that 



