Aural surgery : a treatise on the curable forms of ear disease / by George P. Field.

  • Field, George Purdey.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aural surgery : a treatise on the curable forms of ear disease / by George P. Field. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    itching in the ears, or for the removal of foreign bodies. The secretion of the meatus, known as cerumen, or ear-wax, is, according to Petrequin and Kessel, of a smeary consistency, on account of the soapy mate- rial made by the potash which it contains. A part of it is soluble in water, another in water and alco- hol. It also contains about 10 per cent, of water, a mixture of oil and stearine, and a dry material, not soluble in water, alcohol or ether, in which chalk, and traces of chalk and soda, are found. As age advances, the parts of the cerumen that are soluble in water and soluble substances increase, but those soluble in alcohol diminish, so that in old persons the cerumen becomes dry and brittle. The contents of the ceruminous glands only differ from those of the sweat glands in the fact that the former contain masses of very fine colouring matter. The substance secreted by the ceruminous and sebaceous glands together, is a yellowish-white rather fluid material, which consists essentially of small and large fat globules, corpuscles of colouring matter in masses, and cells in which single globules of fat and coloiu- ing matter are embedded; hairs and scales of epi- dermis are also found in the canal.* Cases.—1. Mrs. C. came to consult me in October, 1874. Says that she has been deaf for fifteen years, but lately the malady has been much worse. Com- plains of great noise in both ears. Is unable to hear a watch in contact. It was very evident from what * Diseases of the Ear, by Dr. St. John Roosa, p. 160.