Note k — BOOK IV.
Reading edition
Auditus autem semper patet: ejus enim sensu etiam dormientes egemus: A quo cùm sonus est acceptus, etiam è somno excitamur. Flexuosum iter habet, nè quid intrare possit, si simplex, & directum pateret; provisum etiam, ut siqua minima bestiola conaretur irrumpere, in sordibus aurium, tanquàm in visco, inhæresceret. Cicer. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 57.
It deserves a particular Remark here, that in Infants in the Womb, and newly born, the Meatus Auditorius is shut up very closely, partly by the Constriction of the Passage, and partly by a glutinous Substance, whereby the Tympanum is guarded against the Water in the Secundine, and against the Injuries of the Air as soon as the Infant is born.