Text Book of Biology, Part 1: VertebrataWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Science
Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Biology -- Textbooks
Section 114. Certain small muscles in the orbit (eye-socket) move the
eye, and by their action contribute to our perception of the
relative position of objects. There is a leash of four muscles rising
from a spot behind the exit of the optic nerve from the cranium to the
upper, under, anterior, and posterior sides of the eyeball. These are
the superior, inferior, anterior, and posterior recti. Running from the
front of the orbit obliquely to the underside of the eyeball is the
inferior oblique muscle. Corresponding to it above is a superior oblique.
A lachrymal gland lies in the postero-inferior angle of the orbit, and a
Handerian gland in the corresponding position in front. In addition to
the upper and lower eyelids of the human subject, the rabbit has a
third, the nictitating lid, in the anterior corner of the eye.
Section 115. The ear (Sheet VII.) consists of an essential organ of
hearing, and of certain superadded parts. The essential part is called
the internal ear, and is represented in all the true vertebrata (i.e.,
excluding the lancelet and its allies). In the lower forms it is a hollow
membranous structure, embedded in a mass of cartilage, the otic
capsule; in the mammal the latter is entirely ossified, to form the
periotic bone. The internal ear consists of a central sac, from which
three semicircular canals spring. The planes of the three canals are
mutually at right angles; two are vertical, the anterior and posterior
(p.v.c.) vertical canals, and one is horizontal, the horizontal canal
(h.c.). There are dilatations, called ampullae, at the anterior base of
the anterior, and at the posterior base of the posterior and horizontal
canals. Indirectly connected with the main sac is a spirally-twisted
portion, resembling a snail shell in form, the cochlea. This last part
is distinctive of the mammalia, but the rest of the internal ear is
represented in all vertebrata, with one or two exceptions. The whole of
the labyrinth is membranous, and contains a fluid, the endolymph;
between the membranous wall of the labyrinth and the enclosing bone
is a space containing the perilymph. Strange as it may appear at first,
the entire lining of the internal ear is, at an early stage, continuous
with the general epidermis of the animal. It grows in just as a gland
might grow in, and is finally cut off from the exterior; but a
considerable relic of this former communication remains as a thin,
vertical blind tube (not shown in the figure), the ductus
endolymphaticus.
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