Geological Society. 395 



Postscript. 



In connexion with that part of my paper which treats of the re- 

 striction of hearing to the closed ear, I desire to add the fact which 

 I have ascertained within the last few days, that if one ear he closed 

 wholly or partially at its external part, i. e. at the meatus externus, by 

 disease or by congenital malformation, while the other ear is healthy, 

 the sound of the tumng-fork, applied to any part of the head, is 

 heard only in the closed ear. This fact holds, although the closed 

 ear is totally unaffected by sounds conveyed through the external air. 



I have further to mention the fact, that all persons, deaf in one ear, 

 Avhom I have lately examined, with one exception, hear the sound of 

 the tuning-fork applied to the head in that ear only that is deaf to 

 external sounds. A man who has been totally deaf in one ear for 

 thirty years, in consequence of a violent blow upon the head, had the 

 tuning-fork applied over the forehead. He started, and said that he 

 heard only in the ear which had been deaf during that long course of 

 time. In such cases I have been disposed to believe that, amidst other 

 lesions of the organ of hearing, there may be present an obstruction 

 or closure, that a reverberation takes place, and that thus a restriction 

 of hearing is secured for the diseased organ. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 238.] 



June 23, 1858.— Prof. Phillips, President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On some points in the History and P^ormation of Etna." By 

 Dr. H. Abich, For. Memb. G.S. (In a letter to Sir C. Lyell, F.G.S.) 



In this letter the author explained his views of the stratification 

 of the rocks in the Val di Bove, of the distribution, nature, and 

 effects of the dykes, and the diff'erent characters of the lavas of 

 successive ages in Etna, and stated his belief that the Val di Bove 

 had originated in subsidence ; and, pointing out the value of the 

 j)eculiar outline of the mountain as illustrative of the double-coned 

 origin of Etna, he described some dykes and rents that have been 

 connected with tlie catastrophe, followed by the formation of the Val 

 di Bove, which gave the chief features to Etna in its modern form. 



2. " On the Lacustrine or Karewah Deposits of Kashmir." By 

 H. H. Godwin-Austen, Lieut. H.M. 24th Reg., Kashmir Survey. 

 Communicated by II. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author, in going up the Jhelum to Baramula, observed great 

 quantities of granitic boulders at Kuthai, Oorie, and Ginglc, where 

 the river-valley widens out after having been narrowed by gorges. 

 These blocks occur throughout the whole thickness of the Alluvium, 

 sometimes upwards of 200 feet, as seen in tiie sections where tlie 

 nullahs cut through it. Mr. Vigne had supposed that these granite- 

 boulders were originally brought across the Valley of Kashmir from 

 Haraoiuk by ice or some other transpcating agency, but the author 



