and so could not have turned it self toward the sound, as we see the Horse can now move it; and also it would have been in conti∣nual danger of being broken off: and if it had been fleshy or membra∣nous onely, the Horse's Ears would have flap'd down like Hounds Ears, which would have been a great deformity.
The uses of this outward Ear are, first, to serve for an ornament to the Head; secondly to receive, or at least to help to receive the sounds; for first, it gathereth them being dispersed in the Air; secondly, it doth moderate the fierceness of their motion, so that they come gently to the Tympanum, or Drum, and beat moderately against it.
The internal or inward Ear hath also sundry Parts, contained in the Os petrosum, as the outward Ear is fasten'd upon it.
These Parts are first the Drum with its Cord and Muscles; secondly, four little Bones; thirdly, its Cavities with the implanted Air; and last∣ly, its Vessels.
The Drum, called Tympanum, is a nervous, round and transparent Membrane, of most exquisite sense, arising from the softer process of the Auditory Nerve expanded. It is exceeding dry, that it might give the better Echo to the sound. It is also strong, that it should the better en∣dure outward harms or injuries. It hath a Cord behind it for strength∣ning and stretching of it, even as the Military Drum hath. As for its Muscles, we shall describe them in the next Book.
Within the Membrane of this Tympanum or Drum there is an internal Cavity, called Concha, in which are several little dry Bones, which have in them no Marrow, nor are covered with any Membrane or periosteum: yet at their ends where they are joined together, they are bound with a small Ligament, proceeding from the before mentioned Cord of the Drum.
These little Bones are four in number; the first of which is called mal∣leolus, that is, a little Hammer. This Hammer hath a round head, which by a loose Ligament is jointed into the Cavity of the second little Bone that is called the Anvil; which head is continued into a small neck, that reacheth beyond the middle of the Drum and adhereth to it. About its middle it hath two Processes, the one of which, being shorter, hath the tendon of the internal Muscle inserted into it; and the other, being longer, hath the tendon of the external, the Drum intervening.
The next of these little Bones is by Anatomists called Incus, the Anvil, having one head and two feet, being therefore more like to one of the grinding Double-teeth than to an Anvil.
The head of this is indifferent thick, having in the top of it a little smooth hollowness, which receives the knob or head of the Hammer. The smaller foot of the Anvil is tied to the top of the Stirrop by a loose but firm Ligament, but the thicker foot resteth upon the Os squamosum, or scaly Bone.
The third is called the Stirrop, having a perforation in the middle, and is fixed before or rather round that passage that is called the oval Window, by which sounds pass out of the first Cavity into the second called the Labyrinth. Which Cavities are wrought by Nature in the Rocky-bone, and contain in them the inbred Air. Now as the crystalline Humour of the Eye is the chief instrument of the Sight, in respect of the reception of visible Images or Forms; so is this inbred Air of the Ear, the chief in∣strument which receiveth the forms of Sounds, although there be another more noble Organ which judgeth of them, as shall be shewn by and by.