A treatise on the structure, economy, and diseases of the ear : being the essay for which the Fothergillian gold medal was awarded by the Medical society of London / By George Pilcher.

  • Pilcher, George, 1801-1855.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the structure, economy, and diseases of the ear : being the essay for which the Fothergillian gold medal was awarded by the Medical society of London / By George Pilcher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    1 8 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. riicated to the seusorium by vibrating bodies, without the intervention of the acoustic apparatus so similar to hearing, if it be not hearing itself, that there would seem to be reason for imagining that the mind, ever watchful to perceive the properties of surrounding . bodies, will receive those perceptions through the medium of some other sense, when that, whose pe- culiar office it is to convey these especial impressions, is deficient normally or abnormally. Thus by many comparative physiologists it is believed that most insects not furnished with an Ear, hear by their ten- tacula, which is supposed to be evidenced by their avoidance of loud sounds, &c.; and the writer has known a musical amateur, though perfectly deaf, enjoy in a high degree the sensations produced by a good performance upon a church organ. These impressions may rather be attributed to an augment- ation in the sense of feeling; for undulations of the air, so minute as to produce only sound to higher beings, may be as readily felt by the more sensitive organs of the insect, as a rude blast may be by the surface of our bodies ; and the varied vibrations of the building, or even of the solid earth, may be dis- tinctly/e/? and appreciated, through the medium of the entire frame, but particularly the skeleton, so as to produce a harmonious impression, whereas under ordinary circumstances an indistinct vibratory motion only would be perceived. But it may be said, that in these instances the auditory nerve is the agent through which the brain is influenced, as the nerves distributed to the tentacula may correspond partly to the acoustic; and in the latter case, though the organ of hearing be itself disorganized, yet the por-