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.

    90/310
    Ointments are applied by means of a small brush or cotton wadding. Powders may be introduced through the speculum, the head being inclined toward the opposite side and the meatus straightened. This is still better effected by using a powder-blower, consisting of a tube made of vulcanite or glass, with a lateral opening through which it can be filled. The opening is closed with the finger or with a special contrivance, while the powder is blown into the ear. The insufflation can best be done with the mouth and an india- rubber tube. Politzer constructed a powder-blower with a special compartment for holding the powder. For the application of boracic acid, the insect powder-blowers are quite suitable. Of solid substances, nitrate of silver is chiefly used ; it is either introduced by a special holder, or in the simplest manner by a silver probe, upon the point of which the caustic is melted. The probe is heated over any suitable kind of flame, and the desired quantity of caustic is melted upon it. When chromic acid is used, its crystals are generally in such a moist condition that they adhere to the point of the probe, and are then melted upon it by heating over a flame, and afterwards introduced into the ear. BLOOD-LETTING. Blood-letting is often employed with very favourable results in acute inflammation of the different parts of the organ of hearing, or in acute exacerbations of chronic inflammation, accompanied by great hyperemia and violent pain. In purely chronic hyperemia also, although only in rare cases, energetic blood- letting is useful. Usually leeches are employed, 3—6 for adults, 1—2 for children. As the blood-vessels of the external and middle ear are partly drained into the venous ramifications in the neighbourhood of the maxillary joint, blood-letting at this point proves very effective, the leeches being applied close in front of the tragus. On the other hand, when the inflammation is deep-seated in the tympanic cavity or in the mastoid process, blood-letting on the surface of the latter is of advantage. In any case it should be employed when the mastoid process itself is painful. In acute in- flammation of the middle ear, leeches are placed round the external