Note t — BOOK IV.

The four little Bones being treated of by all that have concerned themselves about this Sense of Hearing, since their Discovery, I shall take Notice of only two Things concerning them. 1. The Discovery of them is owing wholly to the Diligence and Sagacity of the latter Ages; of which Schelhammer gives this Account from Fallopius, Hæc Officula antiquis Anatomicis——ignota fuere; primusque qui in lucem produxit [Malleum & Incum] fuit Jac. Carpensis; primus quoque procul omni dubio Anatomicæ artis, quam Vesalius posteà perfecit, restaurator. Tertium [Stapedem] invenit ac promulgavit primus Joh. Phil. ab Ingrassia, Siculus, Philosophus ac Medicus doctissimus. Quartum, Thomâ Bartholin. teste, viro longè celeberrimo, Fran. Sylvio debetur Schel. ubi supr. c. 3. §. 9. 2. Their Difference in Animals: In Man, and Quadrupeds, they are four, curiously inarticulated with one another; with an external and internal Muscle to draw, or work them, in extending, or relaxing the Drum; but in Fowls the Case is very different: His unum Ossiculum solùm largita est Natura, quod Collumellam fortè appellaveris: teres enim est & subtilissimum, basi innitens latiori, rotundæ. Huic adnexa est cartilago valde mobilis, quæ in Tympanum videtur terminari. Id. Ib. §. 8. In the Ears of all the Fowl that I could examine, I never found any more than one Bone, and a Cartilage, making a Joynt with it, that was easily moveable. The Cartilage had generally an Epiphyse, or two, one on each Side.——The Bone was very hard and small, having at the end of it a broad Plate, of the same Substance, very thin, upon which it rested, as on its Basis. Dr. Al. Moulen in Phil. Trans. Nᵒ. 100.

These are the most material Things I find observed by others, concerning the Ears of Fowls, and some of them hardly, I believe, observed before. To which I shall subjoyn some other Things I have my self discovered, that I presume escaped the Eyes of those most curious and inquisitive Anatomists. Of which the last cited Book VII. Chap. 2. Note (d).