Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/243

 other inner Cavities were not better understood, the spiral Bones of the Cochlea, that are divided into Two distinct Cavities, like Two pair of Winding-Stairs parallel to one another, which turn round the same Axis, with the Three semicircular Canals of the Labyrinthus, into which the inner Air enters, and strikes upon the small Twigs of the Auditory Nerves inserted into those small Bones, were things that they knew so little of that they had no Names for them; and indeed till Monsieur du Verney came, those Mazes were but negligently, at least unsuccessfully, examined by Moderns as well as Ancients; it being impossible so much as to form an Idea of what any former Anatomists asserted of the wonderful Mechanism of those little Bones, before he wrote, if we set aside Monsieur Perrault's (m) Anatomy of those Parts, which came out a Year or two before; who is not near so exact as Monsieur du Verney.

The other Parts of the Head and Neck, wherein the Old Anatomy was the most defective, were the Tongue as to its internal Texture, and the Glands of the Mouth, Jaws and Throat. The Texture of the Tongue was but guessed at, which occasioned great Disputes concerning the Na-