The middle ear, which includes the tympanic cavity and the auditory tube, originates from the first pharyngeal pouch.

Their afferents drain the nasal cavities, the nasal part of the pharynx, and the auditory tubes.

De aure humana tractatus published in 1704 contains a description of the Valsalva maneuver and patency test of the auditory tubes.

Behind the ostium of the auditory tube is a deep recess, the pharyngeal recess (also referred to as the fossa of Rosenmüller).

Guttural pouch: A large (300-500 ml), paired, air-filled ventral diverticulum of the auditory tube found in horses and other Perissodactyla.

It contains the bodies of general somatic sensory neurons for innervation of the pharynx, tonsils, tongue, middle ear, auditory tube and the ear canal.

The former passes backward, lateral to the auditory tube; the latter arises from the ganglion, near the origin of the nerve to the Pterygoideus internus, and is directed forward.

The endoderm lines the future auditory tube (Pharyngotympanic " Eustachian " tube), middle ear, mastoid antrum, and inner layer of the tympanic membrane.

Projecting backward from near the middle of the posterior edge of this plate is an angular process, the processus tubarius, which supports the pharyngeal end of the auditory tube.

It is distributed to the upper part of the pharynx and to the auditory tube, sending into the tympanic cavity a small branch which anastomoses with the other tympanic arteries.

It arises from the under surface of the apex of the petrous part of the temporal bone and from the medial lamina of the cartilage of the auditory tube.

The pharynx is about 15 cm long in an adult, and includes the nasopharynx, which protect the entrance to the auditory tubes, the oropharynx, which contains tonsillar tissue, and the laryngopharynx.

The tensor tympani, the larger of the two muscles of the tympanic cavity (the other being the stapedius), is contained in the bony canal above the osseous portion of the auditory tube.

It passes through the palatovaginal canal with the pharyngeal branch of the maxillary artery, and is distributed to the mucous membrane of the nasal part of the pharynx, behind the auditory tube.

It arises from the cartilaginous portion of the auditory tube and the adjoining part of the great wing of the sphenoid, as well as from the osseous canal in which it is contained.

Since it is also attached to the lateral cartilaginous lamina of the auditory tube, it assists in its opening during swallowing or yawning to allow air pressure to equalize between the tympanic cavity and the outside air.

The mucous membrane of the soft palate is thin, and covered with stratified squamous epithelium on both surfaces, excepting near the pharyngeal ostium of the auditory tube, where it is columnar and ciliated.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the most common cancer originating in the nasopharynx, the uppermost region of the pharynx ("throat"), behind the nose where the nasal passages and auditory tubes join the remainder of the upper respiratory tract.

It arises by a flat lamella from the scaphoid fossa at the base of the medial pterygoid plate, from the spina angularis of the sphenoid and from the lateral wall of the cartilage of the auditory tube.

About 1860, Reis built several forms of electrical telephonic apparatus, all imitating in some degree the human ear, with its auditory tube, tympanum, etc., and examples of the apparatus were exhibited in public not only in Germany, but in England.

On its lateral walls are the pharyngeal ostia of the auditory tube, somewhat triangular in shape, and bounded behind by a firm prominence, the torus tubarius or cushion, caused by the medial end of the cartilage of the tube that elevates the mucous membrane.

The lateral half of the great wing articulates, by means of a synchondrosis, with the petrous portion of the temporal, and between the two bones on the under surface of the skull, is a furrow, the sulcus tubæ, for the lodgement of the cartilaginous part of the auditory tube.

The chorda tympani nerve passes through a canal (canal of Huguier), separated from the anterior edge of the petrotympanic fissure by a thin scale of bone and situated on the lateral side of the auditory tube, in the retiring angle between the squama and the petrous portion of the temporal.