Volume 2

The standard family physician : a practical encyclopedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others].

Date:
1908-1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The standard family physician : a practical encyclopedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/436 (page 295)
    attacks of nasopharyngeal catarrh, and by enlargement of the tonsils, especially of the nasopharyngeal tonsil. The most serious cases of the affection are encountered as complications of scarlatina. Examination and treatment by a specialist is imperative, and the belief that “running of the ears” is of little significance, or is even conducive to health, is thoroughly obsolete and pernicious. Running of the ear is a serious matter, and the advice of a layman is not reliable. The pain may be allayed by hot compresses, fomentations, linseed poultices, etc. Cold air and cool baths must be avoided. The extension of the process to the mastoid cells or to the meninges is accompanied by high fever, by headache, by soreness behind the ear, and by other localizing signs. These cases need operation, and usually without delay. Chronic suppurative disease of the middle ear is not common. It requires operative treatment as a rule. EAR, ITCHING OF.—A sensation due to a persistent eruption in the auditory canal, which sometimes is accompanied by the secretion of mois- ture, at other times by the casting off of dry scales. The affection is diffi- cult to cure, irrigations tending only to aggravate the condition. Scratching and picking of the ear are most apt to lead to furuncles of the auditory canal. See Diseases oj the External Ear, s. v. Ear, Diseases of. EAR, POLYPI OF.—Pedunclcd tumors which arise as a result of per- sistent suppurations of the ear, mostly when the bones arc affected by the pus. They should be looked upon as tissue proliferations. By obstructing the auditory canal they cause a retention of the pus, which may lead to dangerous consequences. Sometimes these polypi become so large that they project from the ear as bleeding pieces of flesh. They arc easily removed with a snare or with a sharp spoon. EAR, RINGING OF.—A frequent symptom which may be due to various causes. When due to Ear-Wax Plugs (which see) it is readily curable. Often it is a symptom of deep-seated affections of the ear, such as chronic catarrh of the middle ear; in other instances it is of nervous origin. In some cases the sounds are sizzling, buzzing, or hissing; in others they re- semble ringing, chirping, or whistling. Ringing in the ears may at times give rise to aberrations of judgment (hallucinations); but the symptom which consists in perceiving sounds that nobody else can hear is not a sign of an affection of the car, but of a mental disease. If the ringing is incessant, the results of treatment are less hopeful than when it occurs only occasion- ally. Before deciding upon any plan of treatment it is nccessai*}' to deter- mine the cause of the ringing. It often happens that patients become accustomed to the buzzing sounds, and cease to notice them. Sometimes, however, the affliction is so marked that hearing is greatly impaired; and it may cause mental depression, and even suicidal intentions. External noises, such as the bustle of the street, music, etc., deaden the sensation, w'hereas the quiet of the night intensifies it.