Ear Trumpet, an instrument intended to aid the hearing of persons partially deaf, although sometimes used by ordinary persons to intensify distant sounds. We have no means of ascertaining at what period or by whom ear trumpets were invented. The practice of putting the hand to the ear in a trumpet shape probably first suggested it, and from occasional allusions to the use of the trumpet in old writers it would seem to have been of very early origin. The earliest form of which we have any knowledge was a rude imitation on an exaggerated scale of the form of the external ear; but as this was found inconvenient from the difficulty of retaining it in place, a form more nearly resembling a speaking trumpet was substituted. This was modified by bending the tube and applying the month, turned forward and given an elliptical form, close against the ear. Another modification was a flat tube passing over the head and applied to each ear, while in front and immediately over the forehead was an opening to receive the sound. One inventor, having observed that in listening intently people opened their mouths, contrived a sort of plectrum or vibrating body to be held between the teeth, and thus to convey sounds by the Eustachian tube.

After the introduction of caoutchouc and gutta percha into the arts, a long tube of one or other of these materials, with a bell-shaped trumpet at the end, took the place of the metallic trumpet, and for many purposes is very convenient. In England in some of the churches pews are constructed with tubes to conduct the sound, opening in convenient positions for the ear of the listener. Among the more recent inventions for facilitating hearing are the auricle, a small tube of silver with a semi-globular expansion, intended to be inserted into the meatus of the ear; and the tympanum, a small thin disk of rubber, having a silver wire passing through it to transmit the sound wave. In a few cases the latter has been of considerable service. In total deafness such means are of no advantage. EARWIG, an orthopterous insect, of the family cursoria or runners, which also includes the cockroach; it belongs to the genus forfi-cula (Linn.). All the six feet are formed for running; the wings are four, the upper pair very short, coriaceous like the elytra of co-leoptera, without veins, enclosing the under wings, which are folded both longitudinally and transversely; the mouth is formed for mastication; the body is long and somewhat flattened, and armed at the hinder end with a pair of curved blades shutting like scissors or nippers; there are three joints to the tarsus; the antennae are filiform.

These insects undergo a partial metamorphosis. They seem to form the connecting link between coleoptera and orthoptera, resembling the former in their elytra, and the latter in the shape of the wings and mouth, and the metamorphosis; for these reasons most English entomologists adopt for them the order dermaptera of Mr. Kirby and Dr. Leach, considering them coleoptera with the metamorphosis and caudal appendages of orthoptera. They are common in moist earth, under stones, in decayed wood, and in similar damp and dark places; they are considered in Europe injurious to peaches, pears, apples, to greenhouse plants, and to pinks, dahlias, and other favorites of the flower garden. The full-grown insect, including its caudal forceps, is not quite an inch long, and its width is one sixth of an inch; the color is light brown. Being nocturnal, they creep in the daytime into any crevice or hole, and this has given rise to the popular belief that they enter the human ear; they might attempt this, but the waxy bitter secretion of the ear would probably prevent their entrance; there are no well authenticated instances of their doing this, and no harm could result if they did, as the drum of the ear would arrest them, and a drop or two of oil would soon destroy them by stopping up their respiratory tracheae.

The common way of catching them in England is by hanging up any convenient vessel or tube for them to crawl into in the morning, from which they are shaken and killed. In the larvae there are no wings or elytra, but the skin is changed several times; the nymph differs little from the perfect insect; in both these conditions they are voracious, even devouring each other. In this country there are several species, rather uncommon, and never injurious to vegetation. - The many-footed creeping animal erroneously called earwig in America (genus lithobius) is not an insect, but a myriapodous crustacean, equally innocent of entering the human ear.

Earwig. - 1. Forficula. 2. Lithobius.