On deafness and noises in the ear arising from rheumatism, gout, and neuralgic headache / by William Harvey.

  • Harvey, William, 1807-1876.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On deafness and noises in the ear arising from rheumatism, gout, and neuralgic headache / by William Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tlie membrane of the tympanum, are found to be swollen and inflamed, and the latter has lost its transparency. Of course the sense of hearing is more or less impaired. The throat on the same side partakes of the disease; the neighbouring textures are swollen, and of a livid red colour, the inflamma- tion extending up the Eustachian tube. The tonsil on the same side is engaged in the inflammation, causing, with the aid of the diseased condition of the other structures of the throat, considerable pain and difficulty in swallowing. The patient, while suffering from this rheumatic attack, as a matter of course, presents all the symptoms of febrile excitement, the intermission, however, being in some cases so well marked as to cause the fever to resemble an ague. I was consulted in the summer of 1856, on the case of a young female, whose symptoms were those of quotidian ague, which had continued for ten days, previously to which she had suffered from a severe attack of rheumatic fever. The cause of the ague was not suspected until the ear became painful, as there were no local circumstances to account for it; but, upon examining the mastoid process, it was found much swollen, very tender, and the patient complained of pain and throbbing in the bone. No doubt being entertained of the existence of an abscess, an incision was made' down to the' bone, followed by a free discharge of offensive purulent matter, and an imme-