154 ANTHROPOLOGY. 
A. External Kar. 
The external ear, or auricle, is situated at the side of the head : it consists 
of the auricle or pinna and the external meatus, which terminates at and is 
closed by the tympaum. 
THE PINNA, or AURICLE, commonly termed the ear, is the external portion, 
composed of cartilage, ligament, and a few muscular fibres, the whole 
inclosed in a duplicature of the skin. It is convex towards the head, and 
concave externally, in which aspect it presents varions irregularities, all 
tending towards the meatus. The convex border which forms the outline 
ef the ear is called the helix; superiorly this edge is thin, and curled out- 
wards so as to bound a depression named the fossa innominata ; anteriorly 
it bends downwards and backwards into the concha and above the meatus. 
Anterior and inferior to the helix is the semicircular prominence called the 
antihelix. This is narrow and prominent behind; as it ascends it becomes 
broader, retires from the surface, and divides into two crura, which run in 
beneath the edge of the helix; this depression between its crura is named 
the scaploid or navicular fossa. Anterior to and overhanging the meatus 
auditorius, somewhat like a valve, is the eminence called tragus, of a triangu- 
lar form. The free apex of this is directed towards the concha, and the 
inner surface is beset with strong coarse hairs or vibrillz, which extend 
across the orifice of the meatus. When pressed backwards or inwards, the 
tragus can cover the meatus. Opposite to the tragus and separated from it 
by a deep round notch is the antitragus, a small tubercle connected with the 
lower extremity of the antihelix. Within the antihelix, tragus, and antitra- 
gus, and traversed above by the helix, is the large and deep depression 
called the concha, into which all the other grooves converge; it leads 
directly downwards into the meatus. The lower pendulous part of the 
auricle is called the lobe, and contains none of the cartilage which constitutes 
the skeleton of the rest of the ear. 
The ligaments of the auricle are the anterior, from the root of the zygoma 
to the anterior part of the helix, and to the tragus; and the posterior, from 
the mastoid process of the concha. 
Of the muscles of the external ear we have already considered those which 
move it on the head (anterior or attrahens, superior or attollens, and the 
‘posterior or retrahens). The intrinsic muscles, or those which only pass 
from one part of the cartilage to the other, are named from the eminences 
to which they are attached. They are the major and minor helices, the 
tragicus, anti-tragicus, and transversus auricularis. ‘These muscles, though 
only rudimentary in man, are highly developed in some of the inferior 
animals. 
Meatus auditorius externus is a tube leading from the concha to the 
membrana tympani; it is about an inch and a quarter long, with the exter- 
nal half of cartilage, the remainder of bone. By drawing the auricle 
upwards and backwards we can partly straighten the canal, and, with a 
strong light directed in it, we can see down to the membrana tympani. 
The bony portion of the meatus is wanting in the child, its place being 
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