576 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1800. 



entirely separate and distinct from that which forms an appendage to the organ 

 of hearing. 



That the elephant hears better than other animals, is generally asserted by those 

 who have had opportunities of making observations on the subject. As this 

 opinion has been advanced by men who had no knowledge in anatomy, and 

 had no previous theory to bias their judgment, it is deserving of credit. • The 

 organ of hearing being now found more perfect, and formed on a larger scale than 

 in any other animal with which we are acquainted, considerable weight is given to 

 this opinion. Mr. Corse, who resided many years at Tiperah, in Bengal, and 

 paid particular attention to the manners and habits of elephants, concurs in the 

 belief of their hearing being more acute than that of man. The following cir- 

 cumstances are mentioned by him in proof of it. A tame elephant, who was 

 never reconciled to have a horse moving behind him, though he expressed no un- 

 easiness if the horse was within his view, either before or on one side, could 

 distinguish the sound of a horse's foot at a distance, some time before any person 

 in company heard it: this was known by his pricking up his ears, quickening his 

 pace, and turning his head from side to side. A tame female elephant, which 

 had a young one, was occasionally sent out with other elephants for food, without 

 the young one being allowed to follow. She was not in the habit of pining after 

 her young one, unless she heard its voice; but frequently, on the road home, 

 when no one could distinguish any sound whatever, she pricked up her ears, and 

 made a noise expressive of having heard the call of her young. This having oc- 

 curred frequently, attracted Mr. Corse's notice, and made him, at the time the 

 female elephant used these expressions, stop the party, and desire the gentlemen 

 to listen ; but they were unable to hear any thing till they had approached nearer 

 to the place where the young one was kept. 



The foregoing observations, the object of which has been to prove that the 

 membrana tympani of the ear has a muscular structure, have already exceeded the 

 limits of a lecture, which prevents us from going further at present into the con 

 sideration of this very curious and important organ. The general analogy between 

 the uses of its different parts and those of the organ of vision, and the similar 

 variations of their actions when under the influence of disease, furnish materials 

 which, on some future occasion, may be laid before the r. s. 



II. On the Method of determining, from the Real Probabilities of Life, the Values 

 of Contingent Reversions in which Three Lives are involved in the Survivorship. 

 By Wm. Morgan, Esq., F. R. S. p. 22. 



The several papers, says Mr. M. which I have had the honour of communicating 

 to the r. s., on the doctrine of contingent reversions, contain the greater number 

 of those cases in which 3 lives are concerned in the survivorship. With the view 

 of completing this subject, I have been induced to investigate the remaining pro- 



