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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    France, as well as in Prussia, it has been placed beyond doubt that these marriages favour the occurrence of deaf-mutism. The author met with an interesting example of the influence of consanguineous marriages in one of the Berlin schools for the deaf and dumb. A deaf-mute child had other five deaf-mute brothers and sisters, and although no case of deaf-mutism had occurred in former generations of the family, it was found that the parents, as well as the grand- parents and the great-grand-parents, had been cousins. Thus the per- nicious influence of consanguinity did not show itself until after the third marriage, when deaf-mutism appeared in such a dreadful manner. The opinion has been frequently expressed that the occurrence of deaf-mutism is promoted by unfavourable social conditions. Unhealthy and damp dwellings, insufficient nourishment, and severe physical exertion of the parents, have been regarded as favouring the occurrence of the defect in children. Although these cannot be held as causes of deaf-mutism, it has been demonstrated, especially by Schmaltz,1 who with the greatest care collected statistics with regard to deaf-mutism in the kingdom of Saxony, that, as a general rule, the defect is somewhat commoner amongst those classes who are poorest, and whose children are neglected. All statistics bear out the fact that acquired as well as congenital deaf-mutism is of somewhat more frequent occurrence in the country than in towns. When deafness arises from disease, the child loses the speech which it has acquired. This is almost without exception the case with children up to seven years of age ; but instances of loss of speech have been observed even when deafness did not occur until the age of fourteen and fifteen. The diseases giving rise to acquired deaf-mutism consist chiefly of inflammation of the meninges, namely simple basal meningitis and epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis. Huguenin 2 points out that there are no decided marks of distinc- tion between these two diseases due to the possibility of the occurrence of protracted epidemic meningitis, which fact renders it difficult to class the sporadic cases with the one or the other. Almost one-half of the cases of acquired deafness are due to 1 Die Taubstummen in Königreich Sashsen, Leipzig, 1884. - Handbuch der Krankheiten des Nervensystems, 2d edition, part I., p. 592.