574 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO IjSl. 



L, The Case of a Boy^ who had the Malleus of each Ear, and one of the Incuses 

 dropped out. Communicated by the Rev. Philip Mordant, M.A. Rector of 

 St. Mary's in Colchester, p. 264. 



A young lad, at Manningtree in Essex, after about 3 or 4 weeks of a putrid, 

 malignant, inflammatory fever, attended with a violent scarlet eruption on the 

 skin, and swelling and soreness, and stufl^age of the nose, had the malleus of each 

 ear, and one of the incuses dropped out. Whether any of the rest came away 

 unobserved, his friend could not tell ; but these were all he saw. Nor could 

 he say, whether the membrane was destroyed, and discharged with the bones, or 

 only so relaxed, as to give room for the bones to come without it ; not having 

 seen the bones till after they were cleaned. But the consequence was, that he 

 almost absolutely lost his hearing ; almost, because though quite deaf as to all 

 common voices and sounds, yet some violent and sudden noises seemed to affect 

 him. But the organ of both ears seemed to be so much destroyed, as to make it 

 highly improbable that he should ever recover his hearing again. In all other 

 respects, he was very well, and then in good health. The coming away of those 

 bones seemed the effect of an abscess, which affected the contents of the tym- 

 panum. 



Another friend observed, that his disorder had been a malignant or ulcerous 

 sore throat, as he judged from the scarlet eruption ; and the passage from the 

 back of the fauces into the ear having lain open exposed to its malign influence, 

 an abscess had been formed in the tympanum, which had been destroyed ; other- 

 wise the bones could not come out at the other ear. 



He had learned to read before this unhappy accident, and the people about 

 him wrote down what they wanted to make him understand. 



LI. Observations concerning the Body of his late Majesty,* October 26, 17 6o. 

 By Frank Nicholls, M.D., F.R.S. Physician to his late Majesty, p. 265. 



The circumstances-|- attending the death of the late King being such, as are 

 not to be met with in any of the records of medical cases, and such as, from the 

 nature of the parts concerned, are not easily to be accounted for ; 1 presume 

 (says Dr. Nicholls) it will be agreeable to the Royal Society and to the learned 

 world in general, if I lay before them a minute detail of what occurred on that 

 remarkable and melancholy occasion ; with such explanations as arise from the 

 circumstances of the case. 



According to the report of the pages then in waiting, about 7 in the morning, 



* George II. 

 ^ This account was laid before his present Majesty George III. for his inspection ; and his Ma- 

 jesty's answer was that he saw no reason why it should not be made public. — Orig. 



