that before the operation I could remember the exact expression of my own face, so as to compare it with others, and draw comparisons between them, but since then it is impossible for me to recollect my own countenance. I account for it from the fact that mutes have always a statue-like, stolid, asinine, imperturbable look, but now there is an ever varying, undefinable meaning, that cannot be retained in the mind; another is loss of powers of application, and although the memory of events or things that happened before is as good as ever, yet it is extremely difficult to remember what has passed since the operation." D.

EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB.

In natural connexion with the foregoing case, we are led to notice our western institutions for the education of deaf mutes. They are two in number, the older in Danville, Kentucky, the younger in Columbus, Ohio. The former, however, seems to have attracted less attention, and to have grown less rapidly than the latter, and we have not at hand, any recent accounts on its condition.

"The thirteenth annual Report of the Trustees of the Ohio Asylum for the year 1839," has, however, been sent to us and must receive a moment's notice.

The number of its pupils is seventy-two-of which, at this time, one is from Pennsylvania, one from Michigan, one from Indiana and one from Louisiana, all the rest from Ohio. The population of that state is estimated at a million and a half, which gives about 22,700 to each of the scholars, sent by her to this school; but the proportion of deaf mutes must be much greater, as there is reason to believe that not a fifth part of that unfortunate class are sent thither. In the catalogue for 1839, seventy-two names are printed, of which we find that forty-one are males and thirty-one females. This remarkable difference, must not be received as evidence that there are in the State more deaf male, than female children-except so far as there are more male than female births; for a greater proportion of the former than of the latter are sent from home to be educated. Appended to the name of each pupil, is the name of the disease, as far as it can be made out, which occasioned the deafness, and the reader will perhaps share in our surprise, at learning that but twen-ty-six, less than one-third of the whole, were born deaf-of the rest, ten are marked as uncertain or unknown, which added to the con

genital deaf make exactly one-half of the aggregate. Of the twenty. six congenital mutes, fourteen are males and twelve females; of the ten marked as unknown, but classed by us with the natural deaf mutes, six are males and four females. But let us take up those in whom the deafness was the manifest offspring of disease after birth. These make thirty-six or one-half of the whole, and may be classed as follows: Inflammation, dropsy and other affections of the head, eleven-fever, eight-sickness, six-colds, four-and small-pox, measles, scarlatina, whooping-cough, cutaneous disease, swellings under the jaw, and coffee in the external ear, each one-thirty-six, of which twenty-one are males and fifteen females. Thus it appears, that while the number of the congenital mutes is, in reference to the two sexes, nearly the same, or as fourteen to twelve, the number of deaf males from disease, is to the other sex, as twenty-one to fifteen. If an equal proportion of the two sexes were sent to the Asylum, these statistics would show, that more boys than girls become deaf, from the diseases of childhood, which indeed, we should, a priori, expect to be the case, inasmuch as they are more exposed to the remote causes of those acute diseases of the head which so often terminate in this infirmity. At this point of our little analysis, we cannot forego one or two practical observations.

First. The excessive use of animal food by indulgent parents, who make no distinction between the constitutions of children and adults, is unquestionably one cause of the frequency of inflammatory affections of the head.

Second. The use of caps, and warm hats and bonnets, in infancy and childhood, is another custom contributing though in a less degree to the same result.

Third. The omission of blood-letting, in the cerebral, and catarrhal diseases of the same class of patients, when the symptoms require it, because of the difficulty of performing the operation, is another and most prolific cause of the same sinister effects. If the aggregate of the children, lost or permanently injured by this omission, could be made out, the catalogue would be appalling. How many die of inflammation of the brain and its membranes, who might be saved by the timely use of the lancet! How many tedious ulcerations of the external auditory passages might not be warded off by the same treatment! What is the ear-ache, the great scourge of childhood nine times out of ten, but an inflammation, which is treated, ten times out of eleven, with stimulants and narcotics!

The following paragraph from the report of Mr. Hubbell, the teacher will be read with interest by physiologists:

"The most important item of information respecting our Ohio Deaf and Dumb, that has been elicited since the publication of our last annual report, is, the existence of a large number of mutes in a particular neighborhood in Highland county. Their number is sixteen, and are found between the ages of two and fifty, though they are almost between the ages of three and twenty. They were all born deaf, and are six males and ten females. They are all so intri. cately connected by marriage and birth that it is difficult to describe their consanguinity. They are all uneducated, of German descent, and no applications have ever been made for the admission of any of them into the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. For the above information I am indebted to the politeness of David Fenwick, Esq., of Mourytown, Highland county."

It is no part of our plan to give an account of the methods of instruc tion and discipline pursued in this Asylum, which is so honorable to the State which founded and sustains it, but having seen much of its internal economy and the progress of its pupils, we must be allowed to express our very high approbation of both. The superintendent and principal instructor, Mr. Hubbell, is not only a gentleman of great urbanity, but devoted heart and soul to his duties.

D.

REVIVAL OF MEDICAL INSTRUCTION IN EGYPT.

Egypt seems to have been the birth place of medicine and her priests the first authorized prescribers. If they departed from the rules, derived from Osiris, or some other god, and the patient died, capital punishment was the consequence. No improvement was, of course, made under this system. Long afterwards, a different kind of medical science found its way into Alexandria, where many Greek and Arabic teachers of considerable distinction, made that famous city an emporium of the sciences. In the progress of time, this second epoch passed away, and a long night of ignorance and barbarism followed. The nineteenth century has seen this obscuration dissipated, and a third era commence. Both the science and the professors, are now from the west of Europe, and we may anticipate for Egyptian science much more than a mere revival. The present century will surpass the brightest Arabic epoch, for Mohammed Alee will soon have a better school, than the Ptolemies ever erected. The following notice of this new experiment, from

Wilde's Yachting Expedition along the shores of the Mediterranean, will be read with interest, by all who have perused the ancient history of our profession. D.

"The Pacha's College and School of Medicine.-I was next transferred to the care of Dr. Sicher, who conducted me through the college and school of medicine, which, as I before stated, forms a part of the building of the hospital, so that the student has but to cross the court from his dormitory to the ward, and can proceed from thence in a few minutes to the dissecting theatre or lecture-room, become acquainted with materia medica under the same roof in which he sleeps, and enjoy his morning's walk in the botanic garden beneath his window. Besides this, they are all required to become acquainted with practical operative chemistry; and for that purpose are sent for a certain time to work at the chloride of lime and saltpetre manufactories. This system, added to that of the general medical education here given, is one well worthy of imitation in Great Britain, and reflects no small credit on its founder, Clot Bey.

"At the date of my visit there were three hundred students in the college, who were fed, clothed, educated, and paid by the Basha. The dormitories and other apartments of these young men were clean and airy, and they themselves appeared orderly and attentive. They all wear a uniform, are regularly drilled as soldiers, and rise in rank and pay according to their proficiency. The pay varies from twenty to fifty piasters a month; and they are allowed out of the college once a week on the Sabbath.

"The nominal duration of study is five years; but the greater number are drafted off into the army or navy after three years: some few remain as long as seven.

"The school of medicine consists of seven professorships, viz: anatomy and physiology, surgery, pathology and internal clinique, pathology and external clinique, medicine and chemistry, botany and materia medica, and pharmacy. Instruction is given by means of an Arab interpreter or dragoman; the professor writes his lecture, and it is translated to the class by the interpreter. The majority of the professors are French, and the salary is somewhat more than £200 a year. They are all obliged to wear the Egyptian uniform and shave the head, but no sacrifice of religion or principle is demanded; and I need hardly remark that all Europeans, or Christians, are under the protection of their respective flags; and, should they be convicted of any misdemeanour, must be handed over to their Consul.

"The laboratory contained a good chemical apparatus, and the dissecting-room several subjects. This latter indispensable requisite to medical education it would be scarcely worth mentioning, but that it occurred among a people whose strong religious prejudices prohibited even the touching of a dead body in some cases, and the introduction of this novel science was one of the most difficult

things Mohammad Alee had to enforce for a long time. He in the first place referred it to the priesthood, who obstinately set their faces against it, declaring it utter incompatible with the religion of the Prophet of Mekka. The Basha's answer, that it was his royal wish and pleasure that they should legalize the act, and that, if they did not speedily do so, it was more than probable they themselves should form material for the first experiment in this branch of the practical sciences, soon brought them to reconcile their prejudices with his unbending will."

PROFESSOR ESPY'S LECTURES ON METEOROLOGY.

The West has lately been visited by this distinguished Meteorologist, who lectured in New Orleans, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati and Pittsburg. Mr. Espy's main object is, by the aid of diagrams. and experiments, to explain to the people, or at least the intelligent and inquiring portions of them, his philosophy of rain and storms; that they may be incited to make such observations, as will domonstrate the truth of his theory. We had not the advantage of hearing more than two of his prelections. The first, comprising his data, was uncommonly interesting to the whole audience; the second seemed to us rather recondite for the popular mind, and had, moreover, a minuteness of detail, for which a mixed audience is not in general prepared. At some future time, we hope, to be able to present a full view of Mr. Espy's system of meteorology, and shall, therefore, at present limit ourselves to the annunciation of his great principle. It is, that caloric, acting in and upon the atmosphere, is the efficient cause of dew, frost, fog, haze, clouds, rain, hail, snow, winds and tornadoes. We may cite one example: When the air over any particular place becomes heated, ascends, and, under diminished pressure expands, this expansion by cooling it condenses its moisture and forms clouds, which fall in rain-the winds meantime blowing towards the spot from all directions. Such being the origin of rain, it is certainly, in theory, possible to produce it by artificial heat. was the annunciation of this possibility, as a practicability, that startled so many minds, and for some time brought the ingenious author into philosophic discredit, with those who did not understand the principles from which his conclusion was deduced. Wherever Mr. Espy has lectured he has attracted much attention to this beautiful department of natural science, and made many converts. We un

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