The physiology of the stapes, one of the bones of the organ of hearing; deduced from a comparative view of its structure and uses in different animals

Abstract The bones of the organ of hearing, or ossicula auditûs, in man and in the mammalia, form, Mr. Carlisle says, a series of conductors, whose office seems limited to the conveyance of sounds received through the medium of air; no parts corresponding to such bones being found in fishes. In two of the classes of animals, however, namely, birds, and the amphibia of Linnæus, there is only one ossicle of the tympanum, which is in the situation of the stapes. Mr. Carlisle then proceeds to give a minute description of the human ossicula auditûs, especially of the stapes. This description we shall pass over, that we may be the more particular in our account of the varieties observed in the last-mentioned bone in other animals.