Origin of the Cochlear Effect

IN 1934 Hallpike and Rawdon-Smith advanced a tentative theory to account for the production of synchronous potential waves within the mammalian cochlea, in response to auditory stimuli1. According to this, the potential waves were held to be set up by movements of a membrane, thought to be polarized, and bounded on either side by the cochlear fluids. It has now proved possible to show that a membrane, polarized in such a fashion, will in fact yield potential waves of the required type.