The surgical diseases of the ear / by Prof. von Troltsch. The mechanism of the ossicles and the membrana tympani / by Prof. Helmholtz ; translated from the German by James Hinton.

  • Tröltsch, Anton Friedrich, Freiherr von, 1829-1890.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The surgical diseases of the ear / by Prof. von Troltsch. The mechanism of the ossicles and the membrana tympani / by Prof. Helmholtz ; translated from the German by James Hinton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    117/180 (page 101)
    MECHANISM OF THE OSSICLES AND THE MEMEEANA TYMPANI. A PAPER lately published in tlie ' Zeitung fiir rationelle medicin ' from among the scientific works of B, Riemann (too early lost to science) contains the product of his extraordinary power of pene- tration and indefatigable energy during the last months of his life. He treats of the problems of physiological acoustics^ and the deficiencies of previous solutions; here too he perceived the point which forms the nucleus of all difficulties and which is the immediate object of scientific inquiry. He proposes^ as the main problem of the mechanics of the ear, to explain how the apparatus of the tympanum is enabled to convey vibrations of the extraordinarily delicate degrees of gradation it actually does from the air to the labyrinth water. He calculates that the excursions of the stapes, in weak though distinctly audible tones, must in part be so small that they could not be rendered visible even under the highest powers of our present microscopes. Por the sure and regular transmission of vibrations of this delicacy there is required an inexpressible precision and certainty in the movements of the conducting apparatus. In many points he says that he will be obliged to disagree with me on the theory of the motions of the ear which I propounded in .my ' Lehre von den Tonempfindungen.' In this connection I must remark that I myself only considered the representation of the movements of the apparatus of the tympanum [in section i, paragraph 6] as they had been previously described by others. It would have been impossible for me then to have prosecuted researches concerning these questions, although