134 



up a fragment of pottery. [This fragment was exhibited when the 

 paper was read.] Having been found at a depth of 39 feet, it 

 would seem to be a true record of the existence of man 13,371 years 

 before A.D. 1854, reckoning by the before-mentioned rate of increase 

 of 3 inches in a century; 11,517 years before the Christian era; 

 and 7625 years before the beginning assigned by Lepsius to the 

 reign of Menes, the founder of Memphis ; of man, moreover, in a 

 state of civilization, so far, at least, as to be able to fashion clay into 

 vessels, and to know how to harden them by the action of a strong 

 heat. 



February 18, 1858. 

 LEONARD HORNER, Esq., Vice- President, in the Chair. 



In accordance with notice given at last Meeting, the Lord Talbot de 

 Malahide was balloted for and duly elected a Fellow of the Society. 



The following communication was read : - 



" On the Functions of the Tympanum." By JAMES JAGO^ A.B. 

 Cantab., M.B. Oxon., Physician to the Royal Cornwall 

 Infirmary. Communicated by Prof. STOKES, Sec. R. S. 

 Received January 23, 1858. 



(Abstract.) 



As in my present effort to obtain further light upon some of the 

 still obscure points in the physiology of the ear I have been prima- 

 rily guided by observations made upon my own ears, I should pre- 

 mise that both are very efficient for hearing ; but that they differ 

 from each other in the important particular that the faucial orifice 

 of the right Eustachian tube closes much less tightly than that of the 

 left, insomuch that there are times when the former becomes quite 

 patent, with no disposition to collapse. Again, having lately been 

 troubled for above five weeks with a tympanic deafness, I carefully 

 registered a series of auditory phenomena resulting therefrom, and 



