\ /
\ /
/|\ |
/ | \ |
| |
A | B |
| |
\ | / |
\|/ |
/ \
/ \
]

Experiment 186.  In indirect vision the appreciation of direction is still more imperfect.  While leaning on a large table, fix a point on the table, and then try to arrange three small pieces of colored paper in a straight line.  Invariably, the papers, being at a distance from the fixation-point, and being seen by indirect vision, are arranged, not in a straight line, but in the arc of a circle with a long radius.

Chapter XII.

The Throat and the Voice.

349.  The Throat.  The throat is a double highway, as it were, through which the air we breathe traverses the larynx on its way to the lungs, and through which the food we swallow reaches the oesophagus on its passage to the stomach.  It is, therefore, a very important region of the body, being concerned in the great acts of respiration and digestion.

The throat is enclosed and protected by various muscles and bony structures, along which run the great blood-vessels that supply the head, and the great nerve trunks that pass from the brain to the parts below.

We have already described the food passages (Chapter VI.) and the air passages (Chapter VIII.).

To get a correct idea of the throat we should look into the wide-open mouth of some friend.  Depressing the tongue we can readily see the back wall of the pharynx, which is common to the two main avenues leading to the lungs and the stomach.  Above, we notice the air passages, which lead to the posterior cavities of the nose.  We have already described the hard palate, the soft palate, the uvula, and the tonsils (Fig. 46).

On looking directly beyond these organs, we see the beginning of the downward passage,—­the pharynx.  If now the tongue be forcibly drawn forward, a curved ridge may be seen behind it.  This is the epiglottis, which, as we have already learned shuts down, like the lid of a box, over the top of the larynx (secs. 137 and 203).

The throat is lined with mucous membrane covered with ciliated epithelium, which secretes a lubricating fluid which keeps the parts moist and pliable.  An excess of this secretion forms a thick, tenacious mass of mucus, which irritates the passages and gives rise to efforts of hawking and coughing to get rid of it.

350.  The Larynx.  The larynx, the essential organ of voice, forms the box-like top of the windpipe.  It is built of variously shaped cartilages, connected by ligaments.  It is clothed on the outside with muscles; on the inside it is lined with mucous membrane, continuous with that of the other air passages.

[Illustration:  Fig. 148.—­View of the Cartilages in front project and form the lages and Ligaments of the “Adam’s apple,” plainly seen and Larynx.  (Anterior view.)