On throat deafness : and the pathological connections of the throat, nose, and ear / by James Yearsley.

  • Yearsley, James, 1805-1869.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On throat deafness : and the pathological connections of the throat, nose, and ear / by James Yearsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    17/98 (page 5)
    channel of communication between the ear and throat, catheterism of the guttural passage is of the utmost importance, both as a diagnostic and remedial agent. Vomiting, the only other rational means of evacuat- ing the tube and tympanum, is most uncertain in its action on the ear. I have met with numerous cases in which emetics had been pertinaciously tried without the slightest effect, where the simple introduction of the catheter was sufficient to remove the deafness. We have not, and never can have, anything like an equi- valent for catheterism in simple obstruction of the Eustachian tube. Another obstruction arises from a cause exterior to the tube itself, and affecting it only in a secondary manner: I mean, enlargement of the tonsil gland. The tonsils are placed in the vicinity of the Eustachian canals, and when considerably enlarged, (the enlarge- ment extending in an upward direction,) they press on the mouths of the tubes so as to cause obstruction or occlusion. Strange to say, this has altogether been denied by several writers on Aural Surgery; but I am prepared with abundant proof in support of its truth. The fact has probably escaped the notice of others, in consequence of the enlarged tonsil not being seen on an examination of the throat. In point of fact, it must be felt for, to be detected. The inflammatory action attendant on the enlargement of the tonsil gland, pro- duces adhesion to the arches of the palate between which it is placed, and these adhesions prevent its ad- vancing into the area of the throat, and thus it escapes detection; were it otherwise, defective voice and speech might be the result, but not deafness. If the enlarge- ment encroach still more on the area of the fauces,