ETHER  AS  A  CURE  FOR  DEAFNESS. 
557 
oxygen — is  now  excluded,  the  vegetables  must  preserve  their 
qualities  for  an  unlimited  time ;  that  matter  alone  possesses  no 
power  of  mobility,  and  that  no  atom  alters  its  properties  or 
changes  its  place  save  by  an  external  influence." — Wittstein's 
V.  Schr.  ix.  340—349. — J.  M.  m. 
ETHER  AS  A  REMEDY  FOR  DEAFNESS. 
The  attention  of  the  public,  both  medical  and  non-medical, 
has  been  of  late  attracted  by  a  fact  which,  though  in  its  origin 
and  early  phases  going  back  some  years,  is  of  interest  through 
the  publicity  given  to  it  by  the  official  journal  of  the  University 
of  Paris,  as  well  as  through  the  daily  press. 
To  state  the  question  briefly : — About  the  month  of  August, 
1855,  a  certain  Mademoiselle  Cleret,  a  private  governess,  inhabi- 
ting a  populous  part  of  Paris,  applied  to  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction  for  assistance,  basing  her  application,  among  other 
grounds,  upon  her  knowledge  of  a  method  of  causing  the  deaf 
and  dumb  to  hear.  This  method,  the  discovery  of  which  was 
accidental,  and  of  which  she  had  made  a  successful  *trial  upon 
some  pupils  suffering  from  deafness,  after  having  experienced  its 
efficacy  in  her  own  person,  consists  in  the  use  of  sulphuric  ether 
dropped  directly  into  the  external  auditory  canal  at  the  rate  of 
four,  five,  six,  or  eight  drops  per  day.  After  the  application  of 
the  remedy  for  fifteen  or  twenty  days,  its  use  may  be  suspended 
some  days,  and  then  renewed ;  it  may  be  continued,  if  not  in- 
definitely, at  least  for  a  very  lengthened  period. 
A  commission  appointed  by  the  Minister,  and  of  which  the 
medical  element  included  M.  Le'lut  as  president,  M.  Behier  as 
secretary,  and  the  late  M.  Berard,  was  deputed  to  examine  into 
the  state  of  the  children  submitted  to  it  by  Mademoiselle  Cleret. 
The  commission  pursued  its  investigation  with  the  utmost  dili- 
gence, until  upon  a  sudden  the  lady  was  seized  with  a  fearful 
malady.  After  having  waited,  without  much  hope,  an  improve- 
ment in  the  mental  condition  of  Mademoiselle  Cleret,  the  com- 
mission drew  up  its  report,  although  the  question,  necessarily 
suspended,  did  not  appear  susceptible  of  being  brought  to  a 
definite  conclusion,  or  to  a  complete  and  demonstrative  result. 
It  considered,  however,  that  it  was  its  duty  to  make  known  such 
facts  as  it  had  witnessed ;  this  it  did  in  the  following  terms : — 
