On the cephaloscope : and its uses in the discrimination of the normal and abnormal sounds in the organ of hearing, with remarks on the diseases in which it is applicable / by John Harrison Curtis.

  • Curtis, John Harrison, 1778-approximately 1860.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the cephaloscope : and its uses in the discrimination of the normal and abnormal sounds in the organ of hearing, with remarks on the diseases in which it is applicable / by John Harrison Curtis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ear liave also been published, shews that the apathy of the profession has ceased, and that aural pathology has taken its proper place in the studies of the medical man, who has thus wrested it from the hands of the empiric. Having successfully devoted a long series of years to the investigation and prosecution of my favourite studies, I feel myself encouraged to persevere and renew my efforts in advancing a science so remarkably beneficial, and which is now, for the first time, correctly appreciated. Of the organs of sense, none is equal to the ear in importance to man; it warns him of the approach of danger, by which he is led to evade insidious attacks, and to escape from situations of peril; it is a principal channel of knowledge, and essential to the enjoyment of the inestimable blessing of social intercourse. A modern writer observes, — When we turn our attention to man, we find the importance of hearing most remarkably augmented, from its intimate connexion with speech. The human being who has been blind from infancy, would doubtless shrink from the idea of exchanging his acute hearing for perfect sight; yet are there few enjoying the benefit of both senses, who do not feel that a greater amount of happiness is the pro- duct of vision than of audition; and, with a full con- sciousness of the all-delightful and rapid—and delightful because rapid—interchange of thought, by the means of conversation — of the all-pleasing, all-exhilarating, all- soothing influences of musical concord,—still must we feel that the deaf man has to be thankful that it is not his sight of which he is deprived. But when we recollect the melancholy state of in- sulation of the deaf and dumb, and remember that deaf- ness from birth inflicts upon the individual deprivation of the splendid faculty of speech,—and when we recall to our minds many blind from their birth who are proficients in music; who have acquired vast information; who have I