The diseases of the ear and their treatment / by Arthur Hartmann ; translated from the third German ed. by James Erskine.

  • Hartmann, Arthur, 1849-1931.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the ear and their treatment / by Arthur Hartmann ; translated from the third German ed. by James Erskine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    HISTORICAL. The earliest mention of diseases of the ear, according to Professor Brugsch, is to be found in an ancient papyrus scroll preserved in the Egyptian collection of the Berlin Museum. He believes that its date belongs to the reign of Ramses il, who adopted the Jewish lawgiver, Moses, i.e. to the fourteenth century b.c. In this scroll, the contents being chiefly of a medical character, two complete prescriptions for ear diseases are to be noticed, one of them a ' remedy for removing a heavi- ness in the ear,' the other 'for curing eruptions at both ears.' The observation is also notable that ' there are two tubes in the right ear, by which the breath of life enters, and two tubes in the left ear, by which the atmosphere {sic) enters.' Hippocrates (about 460 to 377 b.c.) wrote extensively on the subject of diseases of the organ of hearing. According to his theories of humoral pathology, he considered the mucus and gall as the principal factors in ear diseases. Hippocrates seems to have first recognised the membrana tympani. He described it as a very dry thin skin, like a spider's web in appearance. For acute inflammation with violent pain, he recommended restricted diet, instillation of oil, and fomentation with sponges dipped in hot water. Otorrhcea was regarded by him as a disease of the head, accompanied by a discharge of mucus. In the third century b.c., the Empiric Apollonius employed a large number of remedies for ear diseases, such as opium for ear- A