The Whisper of God
How are your ossicles today?! These three tiny bones in your middle ear are known as the malleus, incus, and stapes. More commonly they are referred respectively to as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup. Although these are the smallest bones in your body, each play a vital role in your hearing. 'Shell-like' has been used to mean a person's ear since the late 19th century. Clearly this refers to the ear's shape with its opening and possibly the fact that shells were used as the earliest form of hearing aids! The earliest citation of the phrase ‘shell-like’ is Thomas Hood's romantic poem Bianca's Dream, 1827: ‘This, with more tender logic of the kind, He poured into her small and shell-like ear’. What do you hear in your shell-like? It all rather depends on how close you are to the one speaking and how much noise is going on around you. This applies to the two types of hearing – natural and supernatural.
- ‘You never really learn much from hearing yourself talk’ – George Clooney