Abstract
MANY different views Have been held as to the respective functions ofthe ampullae, otoliths. and other constituent parts of the internal ear,and any fresh evidence on the subject must be welcome to physiologists. Prof. Maxwell seems to have attained a high degree of accuracy in his experimental methods, especially in dealing with the otoliths. He shows, for example, that compensatory movements to rotations around the longitudinal and transverse axes continue so long as the otolith of the recessusutriculi remains uninjured. He further shows, in the case of the ray, bymechanical pressure upon the otolith in different directions, that it isthe displacement of the otolith and not its own pressure which is theactual stimulus, and that it is the direction of the displacement which determines the direction of the compensatory movement. “Unfortunately, his experiments leave us completely in the dark as to the reason for the existence of the threesemicircular canals and their highly characteristic orientation.
Labyrinth and Equilibrium.
By Prof. S. S. Maxwell. (Monographs on Experimental Biology.) Pp. 163. (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1923.) 10S. 6d. net.
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 112, 757 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112757c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112757c0