In the hearing mechanism of man, the _inner ear_, or _labyrinth_, well so named because of its complexity, is really situated in the inner hardest portion of the "temporal" bone. It consists of a membrane and a bony portion, the former containing the essential mechanism of hearing, the latter being chiefly protective to it. 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. This end-organ in the cochlea may be compared very fitly to the telephone which receives the message, and that portion of the brain where the auditory tract ends, to the telephone at the distant end of the path, the listener there representing consciousness. The auditory path within the brain is long and complicated, there being, in fact, many way-stations through which the message passes before it reaches the final one. The auditory nerve proceeds first to the lowest or hindermost portion of the brain, known as the _bulb_, or _medulla oblongata_; thence a continuation of the nerve tract passes forward to a central region, the _posterior corpora quadrigemina_, then, by a new relay of nerve-fibres, to the highest and most important part of the brain, that most closely associated with consciousness, the _cortex of the temporal lobe_, where there is situated the most important of all the centres of hearing. It will be apparent, on consideration, that "hearing" is a very elaborate result, the outcome of many physiological processes (initiated by physical ones), the initial and final being better understood than the intermediate ones. One asks, with natural curiosity and interest, "Is the auditory apparatus of the highly endowed musician different from and superior to that of the individual with little talent for music?"