448 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1 699. 



Epistola D. Raymundi Fieussens, M. D. et S. R. S. ad Societatem Regiam Land, 

 missa, de Organo Auditus. Dated Montpelier, Fed. 20, i6qq. N° 238, p. 370. 



In this very long letter the author gives an account of some particulars rela- 

 tive to the structure and diseases of the ear, not noticed in the treatise on this 

 subject written by his countryman Du Verney,* of whose anatomical labours, 

 however, he speaks in terms of high commendation. 



He gives a minute description of the membrana tympani, which he divides 

 into internal and external. This membrane is a production of the membrane 

 which lines the aquaeductus Fallopii. From the greater or less degree of expan- 

 sion and sensibility of this membrane he accounts for acuteness and dulness of 

 hearing, and certain disorders of the ear, such as tinnitus aurium. Then follow 

 observations on the muscles of the internal ear, which he makes to be only 

 2, not 4, as other anatomists; for he considers what have been regarded as two 

 muscles of the malleus, as but one, having two tendons but only a single belly. 

 He accordingly terms it musculus monogastricus. Next he enters into a descrip- 

 tion of the two apertures of the labyrinth of the ear; the upper or oval one 

 of which (fenestra ovalis) he calls the fenestra labyrinthi, and the lower one 

 (fenestra rotunda) which is round, he proposes to call the janua labyrinthi. He 

 then describes the distribution of the portio mollis over the membrane which 

 lines the internal surface of the semicircular canals ; and lastly he treats of the 

 cochlea, which he divides into two parts, the first of which he calls the cochlea, 

 the other the ductus semi-ovalis spiralis. 



j4n Argument for the more frequent Use of Laryngotomy. By Dr. IVm. Mus- 



grave. N° 258, p, SQB. 



Laryngotomy is highly to be valued, because when a man is in most immi- 

 nent danger of suffocation, and apparently within very few minutes of his last, by 

 opening a new passage for breath it gives immediate relief, and that when all 

 other methods fail, and without any considerable injury from the instrument. 

 The patient is thus in a minute or two brought from the struggles of death to 

 a state of complacency, ease, and security. 



That laryngotomy may be practised in danger of suffocation, and that the 

 wound is curable, will appear by the following case, communicated by Mr. Keen, 

 who performed the cure. 



Nicholas Hobb, of St. Enodor in Cornwall, aged about 63, was set upon by 

 ruffians, who first by a blow on the occiput knocked him to the ground, then 



• Sec vol. ii, p. 643, of this Abridgment. 



