Pathological and surgical observations on the diseases of the ear / by Joseph Toynbee.

  • Toynbee, Joseph, 1815-1866.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological and surgical observations on the diseases of the ear / by Joseph Toynbee. 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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    many of the noises may depend on the disordered functions of the auditory nerve, I think they may arise too from these small branches of the glosso- pharyngeal and their communication with the sym- pathetic in the carotic canal.” The following observations by the same author appear to me to be of the greatest interest. “ The consideration of the distribution of the tympanine branch of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve, leads to the conclusion that the tympanum performs more impor- tant functions in the production of hearing than have been usually ascribed to it, and that the failure of remedies in cases of deafness which have been termed nervous, may have proceeded very much, not only from the obscure situation of the tympa- num, but from the misapplication of the remedies themselves. And I conceive, therefore, as a thick- ening of the membrane lining the tympanum and involving such delicate nerves, can be so often ob- served, that many diseases of the ear may be more within the reach of art than has been contemplated, and that by subduing the inflammatory action at its very onset, before the structure of the delicate parts has become so much changed as permanently to im- pair their functions, many of the worst cases might be prevented. I now proceed to detail at length the account of the dissections of forty-one ears ; which were all taken, with one exception, from patients who died * Loc. cit. pp. 272, 273.