552 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. H., No. 38. 



astray as the English have been. We shall, 

 moreover, be free from the pressure of a royal 

 court which dislikes biological science, and 

 from the influence of the personal prejudices 

 of the sovereign, still powerful enough in Eng- 

 land to have much weight in legislation on 

 questions outside of Whig and Torj- politics. 

 Still, American phj-siology is b}- no means 

 secure, unless its leaders take warning bj- the 

 English disaster. Thej- have, in consequence 

 of British legislation, an opportunity to make 

 the United States the chief seat of physiologi- 

 cal research among the English-speaking peo- 

 ples ; and it will be a lasting disgrace to them 

 if they let it slip. If, while freely admitting 

 that thej' believe it their dutj' to experiment on 

 living animals, they will be on the alert to cor- 

 rect at once the falsehoods and exaggerations 

 of the fanatics ; to take pains to teach the pub- 

 lic how much the scientific treatment of disease 

 depends on physiological, therapeutical, and 

 pathological research ; and to make it widely 

 known how very small a percentage of vivi- 

 sections involve more pain than that felt bj^ a 

 man on receiving a hypodermic of morphia, — 

 then there is little doubt the}' will be allowed 

 to carrj' on without hindrance their benefi- 

 cent work. The onlj' danger lies in the 

 ignorance of the great majority of ordinarilj^ 

 well-informed people regarding such subjects. 

 Secrec3% not publicity, is what American phj's- 

 iology has to fear. 



A HEARING OF BIRDS' EARSA — II. 



Let us next confine attention to the ossicles 

 of the ear. Those familiar with these little 

 bones, only as thej- occur in man or anj- other 

 mammal, need to be cautioned that their ana- 

 tomical arrangement, and to a great extent 

 their physiological characters, are ver}' different 

 in birds and other reptile-like vertebrates.' Pre- 

 suming, of course, upon the reader's thorough 

 knowlege of the human case, we will demon- 

 strate these bones in their proper relations and 

 oflSces in birds, as elements of the lower jaw 

 and hj'oid bones (mandibular and hj'oidean 

 arches) . 



The malleus is the proximal element of the 

 meckelian cartilage (figs. 1, 2, mk), a gristly 



^ Continued from No. 34. 



rod aliout which the lijwer jaw-lionc is devel- 

 oped in membrane. Eec-oniing segmented oti' 

 from tlie rest of the meckelian rod, it is in 

 mammals withdrawn into the tynii)anic cavity, 

 disconnected from the jaw-bone, and connected 

 with the incus, its processus gracilis lying in 

 the glaserian fissure. The jaw-1)one then ar- 

 ticulates directly with the glenoid cavity of 

 the squamosal, forming the teinporo-maxillary 

 articnlation. In any bird the malleus remains 

 outside the ear, and acquires comparatively 

 enormous dimensions, with the peculiar shape 

 shown in fig. 1, q (see also tig. 2, q). This 



Fig. 2. — The post-oral arches of the house-martin, at middle of 

 period of incubation, lateral view, ^ 20 diameters. Jlkt stump 

 of meckelian or mandibular rod, its articular part. t(r, already 

 shapen ; q, quadrate bone, or suspensorium of lower jaw, with 

 a free anterior orbital process and long pu.sterior otic process 

 articulating with the ear-capsule, of which teo, tympanic wing 

 of occipital, is a part; visit est, sst, ist. sth, parts of the sus- 

 pensorium of the third post-oral arch, not completed to chy : 

 mst, raedio-stapedial,- to corae aw.ty from tea, bringing a piece 

 ■with it, the true stapes, or columella awis, the oval base of 

 the stapes fitting into the future fenestra ovalis, or oval win- 

 dow, looking into the cochlea, or inner ear ; sst, supra-stape- 

 dial ; est, extra-stapedial ; ist, infra-stapedial, which will unite 

 with s^A, the stylo-hyal; cAy and bhy, cerato-hyal and basi- 

 hyal, distal parts of the same arch; iibr, br\, bi'2, basi-bran- 

 chial, epi-branchial, and cerato-branchial pieces of the third 

 arch, composing the rest of the hyoid bone. (After I'arker.) 



quadrate bone, as it is called in birds, looks 

 something like an anvil, and has often been 

 mistaken for the incus: on the other hand, 

 from its function in supporting the memhrana 

 tympani in part, it has been malidentilied with 

 the tj'mpanic bone (external auditor}' process) . 

 It is veiy freely articulated at both ends, rock- 

 ing back and forth with the movements of the 

 jaws. It normally has articulation with five 

 separate bones: 1. By its lower end, which 

 is bitubercular, with the articular piece of the 

 mandible (lower jaw), forming the true tem- 

 poro-maxillary articulation ; 2. By the outer 

 extremity of its lower end with the quadrato- 

 jugal bone (fig. 1, gj), which is the posterior 

 element of the zygomatic arch, continued for- 

 ward b}' the jugal or malar bone (fig. 1, J) to 

 the superior maxillary (fig. 1, mx) ; 3. By the 

 inner extremit}' of its lower end with the ptery- 



