Rajat Singh was working as a supervisor in a stone quarry where rock, sand and gravel are extracted by techniques like digging, drilling and blasting. As the years rolled by, Rajat started facing a loss in hearing. The high decibel sounds had damaged a part of his internal ear, though the tympanic membrane was intact.
Give the collective term for the structure located in the internal ear.
Topic: Membranous labyrinth
Answer
The MEMBRANOUS LABYRINTH.
The internal ear consists of a bony cavity, the BONY LABYRINTH, within which lies a membranous sac of the same shape — the MEMBRANOUS LABYRINTH. It comprises the cochlea, the vestibule (utriculus and sacculus) and the three semicircular canals.
The word LABYRINTH means a maze, which describes the complicated coiled shape well.
Between the two labyrinths lies PERILYMPH, and inside the membranous labyrinth is ENDOLYMPH — two fluids often asked about, and easy to tell apart by their prefixes: peri- means around, endo- means within.