Diseases and injuries of the ear : their prevention and cure / by Charles Henry Burnett.

  • Charles Henry Burnett
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases and injuries of the ear : their prevention and cure / by Charles Henry Burnett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the beginning of deafness. Thus the profound deaf- ness is founded, because, being unrecognized at its beginning, it receives no treatment. Colds in the head are the chief cause of chronic catarrh in the ears. But it often is due to scarlet fever, measles, and skin-diseases in childhood, and to typhoid fever and childbed in adult life. In children one of the first symptoms of nose- and ear-disease, with hard- ness of hearing, is mouth-breathingthe child breathes through its mouth instead of through its nose. This causes a dryness and finally disease in the throat. The disease of the nostrils causes them to become further impeded inside, from a want of the necessary stimulus of the respired air. Outside, on its sides, or ^Svings, the nose falls in and looks pinched. The back part of the nose is deprived of air, and hence the middle ear fails to get its supply of air and its function is impaired. When this defective aeration of the drum-cavity once sets in, the patient is advancing in his deafness; for if aeration or ventilation of the tympanic cavity stops for a short time only, the ear is put in the first stage of deafness. Such a condition must be overcome as soon as observed. In children we must be on the lookout for stopped nose and relieve it, or have it treated, at once. Adults should be careful not to breathe through the mouth, especially in the open air; and if this seems difficult, they should have the nose put in a condition to permit easy respiration and check mouth-breathing. Mouth-breathing is not only preju- dicial to good hearing, but it tends to bring on throat- and lung-disease, because the respired air is taken S 9