to keep a district school, or to transact the most ordinary concerns of life. Medicines are given in improper quantities and cases, and the most serious consequences, the loss of health and life, are the result. If the public will tolerate such things, I care not how much they suffer. t "A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's i back," said Solomon ; see Proverbs xxvi. verse 3d. A. Meriden, Ct., Dec. 15th, 1837. FORMATION OF THE EAR [Communicated for the Boston

more »

... al and Surgical Journal.] The human ear presents, in its structure, a number of mathematical relations which are explicable on the supposition that its development is the joint effect of the vibrations of two elastic mediums impinging on each other; one without, which serves as a vehicle for the transmission of sounds, the other within, and immediately contiguous to the acoustic nerves. The most complete of these are the shape and position of the semicircular canals, and the cochlea. The external ear and the ossicula? afford also some interesting considerations, but as they are more irregular and complex, especially when viewed with reference to the imperfection of the science of acoustics, I shall only attempt to show the mode of formation of the two first.