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Updated: June 21, 2025
The membranous portion consists of a series of canals communicating with some similarly membranous sacs, the whole being surrounded by and filled with fluid. These latter communicate with an extension termed the cochlea, which contains a central canal in which that collection of cells is found which constitutes the end-organ, among them the hair-cells, about which the nerve ends.
Hearing is finally a psychological or mental condition, a state of consciousness, but is always associated with certain physiological processes, which are initiated by a physical stimulus in the form of waves in a fluid surrounding the hair-cells of the auditory end-organ; which waves may again be traced to the movements of the bones of the middle ear, caused by the swinging to and fro of the drum-head, owing to vibrations of the air produced by a sounding body.
It is estimated that there are no less than 3000 of these arches in the human ear, placed side by side in a continuous series along the whole length of the basilar membrane. The fact that these hair-cells are connected with the fibers of the cochlear division of the auditory nerve suggests that they must play an important part in auditory sensation.
The most important part of the inner ear is 13, the cochlear canal, in which the "hair-cells" are found, around which latter the final branches of the auditory nerve end. Above it is the scala vestibuli and below it the scala tympani, passages filled with fluid. The openings to these canals are closed with membrane.
The outer ear collects the vibrations, the middle ear conducts them, and the internal converts them into a special physiological condition of the hair-cells and the auditory nerve. This condition is communicated to the other links in the anatomical hearing chain, until the highest part of the brain, or cortex, is reached.
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