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III. On the difference of structure between the human Membrana 
Tympani and that of the Elephant. By Sir Everard Home, 
Bart. V. P. R. S. 
Read December 12, 1822. 
In the year 1799, I brought before the Society proofs of 
muscularity in the membrana tympani of the elephant, and 
led on by that discovery, I was enabled to show that this 
membrane in the human ear is also muscular. 
As the organ I examined in the elephant was in a dried 
state, and the parts somewhat distorted, I went no farther 
than to state, that the form of the membrane was oval ; the 
fibres, as in the human ear, radiated from the circumference 
to the centre, and instead of being attached to the point of 
the handle of the malleus, were connected to it through its 
whole length : that this oval form, common to many qua- 
drupeds, as the horse, deer, and cat, was the probable cause 
of these animals not having their ears adapted to musical 
sounds, in the same degree with man, whose membrane is 
circular, all the muscular fibres forming radii of equal lengths 
from the centre to the circumference. Ever since that time, 
I have put my friends, in the different parts of India, under 
contribution to supply me with the head of a young elephant 
preserved in spirit, to enable me, with more accuracy, to ex- 
amine the fibres of the membrana tympani. 
In this object I have at last succeeded, through the kindness 
