The House We Live In; or, The Making of the Body

by Vesta J. Farnsworth

THE HEARING PASSAGE

THE HEARING PASSAGE

OTHER: While we have but one voice room, we have two hearing rooms or passages, and they are the most wonderful of any you ever did see. One is placed on each side of the head.

Elmer: Those are the ears, I know. Please let us send a sound through them, mother, and you tell us what it finds.

Mother: Very well; and we will suppose this sound has eyes as well as a tongue, and it will tell us what it sees. Now listen:—

All sounds are made of such tiny waves, so very, very small, that you can never see them, yet they are something like those you see when you throw a stone into the pond. The first thing a sound finds when it wishes to visit the master of the body-house, is a pretty porch just outside of the passage made for it to enter.

“Something like a shell.”

Amy: What does it look like?

Mother: Something like a shell, and it is a pretty, pale pink color. I suppose it was made this shape so it can catch and hold sound; for I have seen some people living in old houses put up their hand to make the porch larger so they could hear better.

Percy: I have often seen grandfather do that, but I never knew why before.

Mother: Each sound finds a little door, which always stands open, and, though it is very small, the sound finds no trouble to get inside. This part of the passage is covered with sticky yellow wax, which is there to keep out anything which should try to go in except different kinds of sounds.

Elmer: How long is the passage?

Mother: Only about an inch, and it seems quite like a tunnel dug in a rock, only this is made in bone instead of stone. At the end there is a round curtain, which is drawn close and tight, like the head of a drum, so nothing but sound can get through.

Percy: But what I would like to know is how the sound can get inside.

Mother: Oh, there is nothing hard about that! It may seem quite like a fairy story, but all it has to do is to knock, and then it is on the other side.

Helen: How strange! And what does it find there?

Anvil, Hammer, Stirrup

Mother: Things you would never expect to see, I am sure: First, a hammer, that strikes with its handle end on the curtain, or ear-drum, as soon as sound gives a knock, and with the other end it strikes a little anvil, and the anvil kicks against a tiny stirrup. Here is a picture of them. They are all made of bone.

Elmer: Well, this beats anything we have heard yet.

Mother: I don’t wonder you say so; for the wisest men, who have studied the body-house for years, say the ear is one of the most wonderful parts of the body. When boys or girls have two drums, two hammers, two anvils, and two stirrups in their heads, it is no wonder that it takes plenty of noise to make them happy.

It makes me think of two little fellows I saw playing with a toy engine a few days ago. They had their mother’s knitting-needles in the smoke-stack, and as they dragged the toy over the floor, it made a fine jingle. The mother, however, wished to talk with a lady friend, and asked them to take out the needles, so they would not disturb her. “But it won’t make any n-o-i-s-e then,” said the older boy in a whining tone. I suppose the noise was a delight to all the tiny hammers and anvils in his ears; and it is much the same with every boy.

But I forgot to tell you that there is a way to reach the inside of the ear without going through the ear-drum.

Amy: Please tell us how.

Mother: By going the same way that air takes to go to the lungs; you will find a little door just before you come to the music room, which leads to the ear.

Percy: But why should there be two passages to get to the inside?

Mother: For the very good reason that air is so heavy; if it should press against the ear-drum, it would break it, unless there was something to press just as much against the other side. So some nice, warm air goes up from the throat, and as it is just as heavy as the air outside, it makes the weight alike on both sides.

I once heard of a girl who was asked how air could get inside of the drum of the ear, and she said, “Through the other ear.” Her mates in school all laughed at such a thoughtless answer. You will now know better than to make such a statement if the question were asked you.

Percy: But I would like to know what else a sound finds in the ear besides hammers, anvils, and stirrups.

Section of ear showing bones,ribbon loops, shell tube and rhroat passage.

Mother: I think you can understand what I say better if you look closely at this picture. This is very much larger than the ear inside your own head. You will see that there are tiny tunnels running every way, some shaped like loops, and one of them very much like the inside of a shell which winds round and round.

Helen: And are all these little tunnels empty?

Mother: No; they are filled with clear water. If you had a very strong mi´cro-scope you would see some things in the ear which would fill you with wonder. First of all we find a little bag floating in the water, made of fine skin, that just fits into all the loops and tunnels. What do you suppose is in this tiny bag?

Amy: I’m sure I don’t know. Please tell us.

Mother: It is full of water, too, but it takes only a drop to fill it. Though this dainty bag is so small, yet there is room for some little stones in it, which we will call ear-stones. The picture shows the road sound travels, only this is much larger than the ear really is.

Percy: I should think it would get lost before it finds the end of all these winding passages.

Mother: It has no trouble in finding its way, and finding it quickly, too. Suppose we start now from the outside porch again, so you will not forget the road. First, it goes through the ear passage and knocks against the ear-drum. This makes the handle inside strike the drum, and the other end hits the anvil; the anvil makes the stirrup tremble; and as sound passes along, that makes the water with the little ear-stones in it tremble also.

Elmer: But what I want to know is how the sound gets into the brain so the master knows what it has to tell him. I don’t see any use of its going through all those tunnels and staying there.

Mother: You may be sure it does not stay there unless there is something wrong with the ear. One of the wires from your telephone system, which you call nerves, passes through a little hole in the skull, and it spreads out on the inside of the tunnels, and all sounds are carried by these nerves into the brain. As soon as one goes in, the master knows what kind of sound it is.

Amy: I don’t see why it should go through so many tunnels.

Mother: I suppose He that formed the ear knows why, but I don’t. A very high sound goes through the shell tube. A very loud sound travels through the loops.

Helen: I suppose sweet sounds please the master of the house most, such as good music.

Mother: Yes; he does not often like loud, harsh sounds. Pleasant tones please him so much that he will sometimes sit for hours listening to them. People talk much about the in´stru-ments of music they have made; but they are nothing when compared with the in´stru-ment God made for hearing them.

This shows us that we should be very careful of our ears, that they may not be injured and we lose our hearing. We should never strike a child on the head or ears; for it may make him deaf. I know a young man whose grandfather “boxed his ears” when he was a little child, and from that time he began to lose his hearing. When we think what the world would be to us if we were not able to hear the songs of the birds, the voices of those we love, and all the other sounds which give us pleasure, it should cause us to guard our ears from the slightest injury.