. The Journal of laryngology and otology. y locking and unlockingthe rods of Corti, but also to produce any degree of tension inevery fibie of the basilar membrane, thus providing what is practi-cally an infinite capacity for sympathetic response to sound-waves. April, 1914. Rhinology, and Otology. 195 Let us first consider the condition of affairs in a liypotlieticalear which is receiving no sound vibrations whatever and which wewill call the silent eav. The thickj heavy, pulpy tectorial membrane (which in thefresh labyrinth is not a membrane^ but has veiy much the con-sistency of a jelly-fis
. The Journal of laryngology and otology. y locking and unlockingthe rods of Corti, but also to produce any degree of tension inevery fibie of the basilar membrane, thus providing what is practi-cally an infinite capacity for sympathetic response to sound-waves. April, 1914. Rhinology, and Otology. 195 Let us first consider the condition of affairs in a liypotlieticalear which is receiving no sound vibrations whatever and which wewill call the silent eav. The thickj heavy, pulpy tectorial membrane (which in thefresh labyrinth is not a membrane^ but has veiy much the con-sistency of a jelly-fish) fills up practically the whole of the cochlearcanal^ pressing- upon and effectually damping the hairs of Corti asthey project through the interstices of the reticulate hair-cell from the base to the apex of the cochlea enduresthis pressure and is damped by it, and every radial fibre of thebasilar membi-aue has the pressure exerted by this damper in somedegree transmitted to it by these hair-cells and is damped Fig. 2.—Diagram illustrating the silent and the sound-adapted ear. Asound-pattern of a certain kind has stimulated the outer hair-cells(), which have consequently contracted beneath the level of thereticulate membrane, thus freeing their hairs from the pressiu-e of thetectorial membrane (m T.). This illustrates the sound adapted ear. Thesilent ear is illustrated by the inner hair-cell (), which has receivedno stimulus and is still damped. We may compare the silent ear to the dark-adapted eye. Wehave a potential organ of sense awaiting the stimulus that is properto it, and we have to consider, in the light of the present theory,what happens when that stimulus arrives. Take a simple andeasily illustrated case. Suppose the particular stimulus to be sucha combination of sound-waves as will call into sympathetic activitythe hair-cells overlying one fibre or set of fibres of the basilarmembrane. The hair-cells contract as soon as the sti
Size: 2291px × 1090px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, booksubjectear, booksubjectnose, bookyear1887
