PHILOSOPHICAL 

 TRANSACTIONS 



I. The Croonian Lecture. On the Structure and Uses of the Mem- 

 brana Tympani of the Ear. By Everard Home, Esq. F. R. S. 



Read November 7, 1799. 



1 he subject of inquiry appointed by the Croonian Institution, 

 has been greatly elucidated at different times by ingenious mem- 

 bers of this learned Society. A large field, however, still re- 

 mains open ; and, respecting future investigations, I shall have 

 occasion to offer a fresh proof of the aid to be derived from 

 comparative anatomy, in ascertaining the structure of parts 

 which, from their minuteness and situation in the human body, 

 admit with much difficulty of being explored. 



The principal object of the present lecture is to communicate 

 a discovery of the structure of the membrana tympani ; which, 

 in some respects, affords a new and very curious instance of 

 the application of muscular action, and may conduce to account 

 for certain phaenomena in the sense of hearing, in a more satis- 

 factory manner than has hitherto been proposed. 



The membrana tympani has always been considered as a 

 mdccc B 



