An introduction to the mechanics of the inner ear / by Max Meyer.

  • Meyer, Max F. (Max Friedrich), 1873-1967.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the mechanics of the inner ear / by Max Meyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    Let US now imagine a third case. Suppose a partition to divide the tube lengthwise into two divisions, leaving, however, a small opening of communica- The effect of a ^^° between the divisions at x. Suppose flexible, but inelas- further this partition to be neither per- tic partition with- fectly rigid like a wall of hard bone nor in the tube as readily yielding and in turn contract- ing as a thin rubber membrane, but to be of the physical nature of a soft leather strap somewhat loosely stretched out between the opposite sides of the tube to which it is assumed to be well attached. To have something definite in mind, let the reader think, for compar- ison of its function, of a leather-seated chair. If you press from below, the seat yields and bulges upwards; but soon it stops in spite of your effort. If now you sit down on the chair, the seat bulges downwards; but again, it soon stops—how could it otherwise be used for the support of your weight? But what is particularly important to note here, is the fact that the leather seat, after it has bulged either way, may continue to remain thus until some ex- ternal force acts upon it again from the other side. Now let us consider the movements which would occur in the fluid of a tube, divided into two divisions by a partition of the nature just described. If the partition could yield indefinitely, the case would obviously be practically the same as the first one we studied—^without any partition. That is, the fluid would move near the two windows and the part of the partition suspended between moving masses of fluid would move with the fluid. Farther on where the fluid re- mains motionless the partition would remain motionless too. But we made the assumption that the partition, like the seat of a leather-seated chair, can move only within certain narrow limits up and down. Now, the result of this condi- tion will be this. When the stirrup begins moving inwards.