Abstract
THE two gentlemen whose names appear in the heading of this paper seem to have arrived at the same important result, viz., the extraordinary effect of mobile particles in transmitting sound under certain conditions, by quite independent research. In perusing the interesting accounts of the microphone in several scientific journals, but especially an article in the Electrician for May 25, in which number also will be found Mr. Scott's statement of the principle, it occurred to me that the transmitting power of the otoconia and otoliths in the ears of animals bore very pertinently upon this question. We find otoconia, or numerous minute particles in all the Vertebrata, with perhaps the exception of the bony fishes which have single concretions, or the union of many in one. Otoconia are also found in the Tetrabranchiate Cephalopoda (Nautilus, Fig. 1), the whole of the Pteropoda, in the Pulmonifera inopcrculata, or rather the bisexual Pulmonifera (snails and slugs, Fig. 3), there being an operculum in Amphibola. On the other hand, in the Dibranchiate Cephalopoda (Sepia, Fig. 2), all the Heteropoda (Fig. 5) and the unisexual opercullate Pulmonifera (Fig. 4) the ear-sacs contain single otoliths.
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DE CHAUMONT, F. ON THE ANATOMY OF THE ORGAN OF HEARING IN RELATION TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF THE MICROPHONE OF PROF. D. E. HUGHES, AND THE MAGNOPHONE OF MR. W. L. SCOTT, A.S.T.E 1 . Nature 18, 285–286 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018285b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018285b0