"DEFFEE" has given us "a poser," for her answers to our thirteen queries seem rather to indicate a combination of unhealthy conditions rather than a single complaint. There is a great amount of information in her report which suggests wax. As the treatment for this condition is perfectly simple, she should try this first. A person who "scarcely knows what a sore throat means" is hardly likely to have suffered much from it. There are certain passages in her letter which strongly suggest that the chief cause of her deafness is hardening and stiffening of the drums of her ears from catarrh of the nose and eustachian tube. We advise her to get an "atomiser" and thoroughly spray her nose and throat with a solution of menthol in paraleine (1 in 8) three times a day. We hardly like to give an opinion as to the ultimate result. "AN UNHAPPY ONE" would do best to go to a hospital as she suggests. The cause of her deafness is probably catarrh. "QUEEN."--Your letter was most interesting, but we fear that we can hold out no hope of your ever recovering your hearing. You are to be congratulated upon having recovered at all from so frightful an accident, which is nearly always fatal. Your left auditory nerve was torn through by the fracture of your skull. It is an exceedingly soft nerve, and we have never heard of its recovery from division. This is probably because the nerve is always more or less lacerated as well as torn across. MISCELLANEOUS. TRELA.--Miniature portrait painting on ivory has become very fashionable of late, and there are always many in the exhibition at the Royal Academy each year. Moist water-colours are used for the painting, sable brushes, and a piece of ivory. The work is very fine, and requires strong and good sight. We think you would require lessons and some study before you made it valuable to you. Meanwhile you should try to see a collection. Richard Cosway was a great miniature painter. You do not say where you write from, so we cannot tell you where to go. If near it, go to the South Kensington Museum. MARGHERITA.--The population of the world is given in Meyer's _Konversations Lexikon_ at, Christians, 448,000,000; non-Christians, 1,004,000,000. GREEN-EYED CAT.--For "madeira cake" take eight ounces of flour, five ounces of castor sugar, five ounces of butter, four eggs, citron as desired, and grated lemon-peel. Blend the butter and sugar together, add the grated lemon-peel, stir in the eggs one at a time, and sift in the flour by degrees. Then pour the mixture into a buttered cake-tin, placing the pieces of citron on the top, and bake during forty minutes in a moderately hot oven.