In neither ear of N. W. Goddard, aged twenty-seven, of
Vermont, reported in 1834, was there a vestige of an opening or
passage in the external ear, and not even an indentation. The
Eustachian tube was closed. The integuments of the face and scalp
were capable of receiving acoustic impressions and of
transmitting them to the organs of hearing. The authors know of a
student of a prominent New York University who is congenitally
deficient in external ears, yet his hearing is acute. He hides
his deformity by wearing his hair long and combed over his ears.
The knowledge of anomalous auricles is lost in antiquity. Figure
103 represents the head of an aegipan in the British Museum
showing a supernumerary auricle. As a rule, supernumerary
auricles are preauricular appendages. Warner, in a report of the
examination of 50,000 children, quoted by Ballantyne, describes
33 with supernumerary auricles, represented by sessile or
pedunculated outgrowths in front of the tragus. They are more
commonly unilateral, always congenital, and can be easily
removed, giving rise to no unpleasant symptoms. They have a soft
and elastic consistency, and are usually composed of a hyaline or
reticular cartilaginous axis covered with connective or adipose
tissue and skin bearing fine hairs; sometimes both cartilage and
fat are absent.
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