Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| Why do we see better toward a lamp or toward the sun if we hold the hand up in front of the light? Is it because the light falling from the sun or the lamp directly onto our sight makes it weaker through excess? For excess destroys both the sight and things akin to it. But when the light is shut off by the hand, it does not harm the sight, while the object seen is nonetheless equally in the light. Hence the sight acts more effectively, and the object seen is seen no less well. Why do the hand and the foot have a difference with respect to [the] right and left, but the eye and the ear do not? Is it because the pure elements are undifferentiated, while the difference lies in things composed out of the elements? And these senses arise from a pure element, sight from fire, and hearing from air. Book 32. Problems Concerning the Ears
2| Why is it that the ears, though the bloodless-most part of the face, blush the most when people feel shame? Is it because foreign fluid naturally tends to travel most of all into what is empty, so that when it is dissolved by the heat that arises in those who feel shame, it collects into these parts? Or is it because they are situated over the temples, into which fluid gathers most of all? And when people feel shame, the fluidity travels into the face; hence they blush there too. Of the face, the ears have the least depth, and are by nature the warmest and best-colored, provided they are not so far removed from the body's heat as to be affected by cold. Hence they are the best-colored of the parts in the face. So that when the heat is dispersed, being present chiefly at the surface in these parts, it makes them red. Why do the ears burst in the sea for divers? Is it because, in holding the breath, it is forced by being filled up? But if this were the cause, the same should happen in air too. Is it rather because what does not yield is cut through more quickly, and by something harder rather than something soft? What is inflated, then, yields less. But the ears, as has been said, are inflated by the breath being held in, so that the water, being harder than air, cuts through as it strikes against them. Why do divers bind sponges around their ears? Is it so that the sea, coming on with force, may not burst the ears? For in this way it does not happen, as it does when they are left uncovered and full.
3| Why is the wax in the ears bitter? Is it because sweat is putrid? So it is salty and putrid. And what is putrid is salty and bitter. Why do sponge-divers slit their ears and their nostrils? Is it so that they may breathe more easily? For it seems to be by this route that the breath goes out. They also cut open the region for the sake of easy breathing; for they say that they suffer more in difficulty of breathing from not being able to send the breath out through the usual passage, and that when they, as it were, discharge it, they are relieved. It would be strange, then, if they could not get relief for the sake of cooling by respiration; rather, this seems to be more a matter of necessity. Or is it reasonable that the distress should be greater in those who hold it in, since they become swollen and distended? And there does appear to be a certain automatic movement of the breath outward; whether also inward must be considered. It does appear to be so. For in the same way people arrange breathing for divers by lowering a cauldron; for this does not fill up with water but keeps the air in, since it is lowered by force; for anything upright, if tilted, lets the water flow in. Why do some people cough when they scratch their ears? Is it because hearing operates through the same channel as the lung and the windpipe? A sign of this is that people become deaf and dumb together. So when the passage is heated by the rubbing, moisture is drawn down from the effort of the rubbing to the windpipe, and this produces the cough.
4| Why does the left ear, as a rule, heal together faster when it has been pierced? For this reason women, too, call one of the ears male and the other female. Is it because the left parts are more moist and warm, and such parts heal together most readily? For this reason healing together also occurs in green plants; and the wounds of the young heal together more than those of the old. A sign that the left parts are more moist and altogether more feminine is this fact itself. Why do the tips of the ears turn red in those who feel shame, while in those who feel anger it is the eyes? Is it because shame is a kind of cooling in the eyes accompanied by fear, so that the heat naturally leaves the eyes? And when it withdraws, it moves to the place best able to receive it. Such a place is the tips of the ears, for the rest of the ear is bony. But in those who are angry the heat returns. It becomes most visible in the eyes because of their white color. Why does the ringing in the ears stop if someone makes a noise? Is it because the greater sound drives out the lesser? Why, if water is poured into the ear, is oil poured in after it, when the moisture already present cannot get out through another liquid? Is it because the oil comes to lie on the surface of the water, and because of its stickiness the water is held by it as the oil goes out, so that the water goes out along with it? Or is it so that the ear, having become slippery, lets the water out? For the oil, being smooth, makes things slip out.
5| Why do the ears of divers burst less if they first pour oil into their ears? Has the cause of the ears bursting been stated earlier, while the oil poured into the ears makes the seawater that comes afterward slip off, just as happens on the outside of the body with people who have been anointed? And as it slips off it does not deliver a blow to the inside of the ear, and so it does not burst it. Why, though the ears have no blood, do those who feel shame blush most in them? Is it because each thing moves most readily into the emptiest part of each region? And it seems that in one who feels shame, the warm blood moves upward. So it makes the emptiest part blush. The same thing happens in the case of the cheeks too. Further, it is also because the skin stretched over them is thinnest there, so it shows through it most of all. Why does no one scratch his ear while yawning? Is it because when a person yawns, the membrane through which he hears is also blown up? A sign of this is that people hear least of all while yawning. For the breath, just as through the mouth, also travels inward into the ears and pushes the membrane outward and prevents the sound from entering. If, then, one touches the organ of hearing while it is in this state, so as to scratch it, he would do the greatest harm; for the blow lands against something resisting, and not against something yielding, as the breath does. It is clear that the skin and the membrane stand apart from the solid parts. So this is what does the most damage in this way, and it could cause a wound.