Deafness practically illustrated : being an exposition of original views as to the nature, causes, and treatment of diseases of the ear / by James Yearsley.

  • Yearsley, James, 1805-1869.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Deafness practically illustrated : being an exposition of original views as to the nature, causes, and treatment of diseases of the ear / by James Yearsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    persons, and in which the membrane of the tympanum cicatrizes in a few days after the eruption of the matter. In other cases, the membrane only closes after the long persistence of internal otorrhoea. Here there is not the same chance of relief, because the disease may have affected the fenestral membranes, so as to render them insensible to sound, in which case neither the removal nor restoration of the membrana tympani would prove of any avail. Careful examination of the ear in such cases will often reveal no sign of a cicatrix, nor any indication whatever of a diseased state of the tympanum. We must get our diagnosis from the previous history of the case. If the patient has ever had inflammatory disease of the ear, followed by discharge, in which deafness appeared as the discharge ceased, the diagnosis is almost complete, as external otorrhoea does not pro- duce deafness without some objective signs of disease of the membrane. In fact, if in such cases a watch can be heard distinctly when in contact with the auricle, or with the teeth, we become quite certain of the cause of deafness, with the single exception of the possibility of disease of the fenestral membranes. Other cases of the same kind are sometimes produced by accidental rupture of the membrane, followed by cicatrization and loss of hearing. We may sum up, then, by saying that in cases of deafness from obliteration or irremediable obstruction of the Eustachian tube, either with or without extra- vasation of blood in the tympana ; in cases of excessive induration and hypertrophy of the membrane ; and in cases in which it is rendered non-vibratile by ulcera- tion and subsequent cicatrisation, there is a probability of improving or restoring the hearing by the operation u