On defective hearing : its curable forms and rational treatment / By James Keene.

  • Keene, James.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On defective hearing : its curable forms and rational treatment / By James Keene. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    the membrane is in consequence much thicker. Glands are most conspicuous at the upper part of the naso-pharynx, more particularly in the neighbourhood of the Eustachian tubes, where they form aggregations, called the pharyngeal tonsils. The mucous membrane covering the inferior turbinated bones is corrugated and irregular, thick, and very vascular. Indeed the capillaries are so abundant in this situation that the part may be considered as almost cavernous or erectile. On this account the mucous mem- brane is very liable to swell, and becomes the prin- cipal cause of obstruction in acute nasal catarrh. The olfactory portion of the nasal tract, or that part to which is distributed the nerve of smell, is limited to the superior and middle turbinated bones, and the upper part of the septum narium. For the proper exercise of the sense of smell it is necessary that odorous particles suspended in the air should be brought into contact with the upper portions of the nasal cavity, which must itself be in an efficient con- dition. Whenever, therefore, the nose becomes obstructed from any cause, these conditions are not fulfilled, and, consequently, smell is lost or impaired. The same may also occur even when in-