At 2 o'clock p. m. I called to see a babe having malignant croup in its worst form, and examined its ears to see condition of wax. I had noticed in consumptives that some cases had great quantities of dry wax in one or both ears, but to this time had not thought of such deposits being an evidence of lost or suspended action of the nerves that manufactured cerumen. In this case I found wax dry and very hard, with much swelling and hardness in region of ears, eustachian tubes and tonsils. I reasoned that the excretory duct had become clogged, and that by the wax being retained in ducts and glands an irritation of the nerves of the cervical lymphatics had caused contraction near head, and produced congestion of the lymphatics, of the pneumogastric, and cutting off nerves supply from lungs. Believing this to be very likely I concluded to act on the above line of reasoning and see if I could give some relief. I did not stop to debate why the wax was hard and dry, but how to soften the wax, was the question of interest to me then. So I proceeded. I reasoned that soap and water would be the best treatment to clean the ears, and soften the wax. At this point to select the best make of soap in the ears was to be desired, so I took pure glycerine and water, dropped in a few drops and took a small roll of cloth, made it wet in warm water and pushed it in ears to keep them wet. In a few minutes I wet and inserted a soft cloth cork in the child's ears. I twisted the corks around in the ears, each time to mix the water and the wax to a softened condition, for to keep the wax wet was the object. In a few minutes I got the wax wet and the child coughed up phlegm easily, and when the dreaded hour, ten o'clock at night came, all danger had passed. CONNECTION OF BRAIN AND OTHER NERVES IN DIGESTION.