The ear : its anatomy, physiology, and diseases : a practical treatise for the use of medical students and practitioners / by Charles H. Burnett.

  • Burnett, Charles H. (Charles Henry), 1842-1902.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ear : its anatomy, physiology, and diseases : a practical treatise for the use of medical students and practitioners / by Charles H. Burnett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    475/652 (page 467)
    Hammrttion in the tympanic cavity, following a blow on the auricle, happened in a boy thirteen years old, who was struck on the ear by a ball. There was in this case, very little external otitis, the auditory canal remained unswollen, though rather more tender than usual, there was pain deep in the ear, with tinnitus and deaf- ness, great redness and swelling of the mombrana tympani, per- foration of the same, and a discharge of blood, mucus and pus from the tympanum. Mastication was painful to the affected ear, and the boy lost appetite and strength. Inflation of the tympanum was easily done by the method of Valsalva and by that of Politzer, showing no obstruction in the Eustachian tube. The ear was syringed regularly each day with warm water, and mild astringents were instilled into it, tonics were given, and in six weeks the boy began to recover his health and hearing, both of which were finally restored. Concussion plainly caused this case of tympanal inflammation. Was it done b^'' a sudden compression of the column of air in the auditory canal, as the ball struck the auricle, and by a consequent forcing inward of the membrana tympani, and a compression or shaking of the delicate structures in the middle ear ? Of course, every surgeon knows that a direct wound of the drum-head and mediately of the tympanic mucous membrane and contents, may produce an acute inflammation of the middle ear, but that which is specially referred to here is a form of acute inflammation of the tympanum, brought about by con- cussion. The powerful compression of the column of air in the auditory canal and tympanic cavity, produced by the concussion, is the only means by which the membrana tympani and drum- cavitj may be said to be struck, and it is this force which probably causes the inflammation. Very interesting cases of this kind of acute inflammation of the middle ear produced by concussion, are four reported by Dr. J. Orne Green.^ Two of these cases of acute tympanal dis- ease were caused by an explosion^ of a bag of gas, one by a blow on the ear from a policeman's club, and a fourth by a fall thirty ' Trans. Amer. Olol. Soc, 1872. ' One of the two cases caused by explosion -was under the cave of Dr. Shaw, to wliom Dr. Green acknowledges himself indebted for the notes of the case (loo. cit.). Al SI