Page 572 : EAMES — EAR
Individual articles:
and lakes and especially along the sea-coast. It is slightly smaller than the golden eagle, having an expanse of wing of about eight feet. The feathers on the head and upper part of the neck are white, which gives it the name of baldheaded. It feeds largely on fish, sometimes catching them for itself, but, when opportunity offers robbing the [[../Fishhawk|fish-hawk]] or osprey. It frightens the osprey into dropping the fish which it has caught, and then catches it in its own claws before it reaches the earth. These birds usually nest in high trees, and lay two eggs of dull white color. Among other varieties are the harpy-eagle, the serpent-eating eagle, etc. Eagles are supposed to attain a great age. They have long stood as the emblems of war and power, and have been the standards of war in several countries. The famous war-eagle of the United States — Old Abe — was stuffed and preserved in the state-library at Madison, Wis.
Eames, Emma (Mrs. Julian Story), American soprano singer, also famed for her beauty, was born at Shanghai, China, Aug. 13, 1867, and is the daughter of an American lawyer then employed in the international courts at Shanghai. Her early years were spent at Bath, Me., her musical studies being directed by her mother, and under instruction in Boston. In 1886 she proceeded to Paris, where she was a pupil of Mme. Marchesi, and appeared in 1888 at the Opéra Comique, and in the following year made her debut in grand opera in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette. She sang with Mme. Patti and with the brothers De Reszke, and met with great success. In England she appeared at the Covent Garden theatre, London, in her impersonation of Marguerite. In the United States she added to her high reputation as a prima-donna, and won fresh laurels under Herr Grau, in her famous operatic parts, including Wagnerian rôles. Her repertoire is extensive, and not only English but in French, German and Italian. In 1891 she married a son of W. W. Story, the well-known American poet and sculptor. In 1908 they divorced, and she now resides in Paris, Prance.
Ear, the organ of hearing, especially adapted to receive sound-vibrations from the air. The ear is merely the receiver; it must of course be connected with the brain by the nerve, otherwise there is no hearing. The parts of the ear are thrown into vibration by the sound-waves, and these vibrations are conveyed by the nerves to the brain. If the nerves are destroyed and all the other parts left perfect and uninjured, there, nevertheless, is no hearing. Receiving organs of this kind are placed on the surface in order that they may be in contact with the external world. They are called end-organs or sense-organs. The ear is one, the organs of sight, smell, taste and touch are others. Ears are found very low in the scale of animal life. In the simpler forms they consist of little bags filled with fluid, in which are small, hard particles called ear-sand or ear-stones. The shaking of the bag causes the fluid to vibrate, and the ear-sand is also put in motion, which increases the effect upon the nerves of hearing. In all the vertebrated animals the ear, in common with the other sense-organs, begins on the surface as a patch of the outer cell-layer. There are two round patches on each side of the head, which become sunk in like small saucers (see illustration). The ear starts in this way in all [[../Fishes|fishes]], [[../Amphibia|amphibia]], [[../Reptiles|reptiles]], [[../Birds|birds]] and [[../Mammalia|mammals]]. In this stage it is called the ear-saucer or ear-pit. Soon it begins to close by the growth of the skin over it; it becomes a sort of pocket, at first open and then closed, after which it is called the ear-vesicle. From this ear-vesicle, which is little more than a sac, arise gradually all the other parts of the inner ear. In the higher animals three parts are recognized: an outer, a middle and an inner ear. The outer ear includes the part that can be seen and the tube leading inward from the surface. Ear-wax is formed within the tube, and a membrane is stretched across its inner end, called the tympanic membrane. The middle ear is a space filled with air, bounded by the membrane on the outside and the bony wall of the internal ear on the inside. The space is crossed by a chain of three small bones, called the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup. The hammer is fastened to the tympanic membrane, and the stapes to a small oval membrane which covers one of the small openings through the bone into the bony cavity that contains the inner ear. The cavity of the middle ear also communicates with the throat through a passage called the Eustachian tube.
In reptiles and birds there is a single long bone in the middle ear, instead of three bones as in the higher animals. The inner ear is the essential part, in fishes the only part. The middle ear is gradually developed and the external ear added to it as we go up the scale of animal-life above the fishes. The inner ear consists of an upper portion from which three semicircular canals arise, and an inner part which in the higher animals is coiled like a snail-shell and called the cochlea; but this part is fully developed only in mammals (see illustration). The illustration shows the inner ear of a reptile, a bird and an ox. Notice that in the
Image: Head of embryo shark showing beginning of ear
