On a new mode of treating deafness when attended by partial or entire loss of the membrana tympani, associated or not with discharge from the ear / by James Yearsley.

  • Yearsley, James, 1805-1869.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a new mode of treating deafness when attended by partial or entire loss of the membrana tympani, associated or not with discharge from the ear / by James Yearsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/44 (page 4)
    my American patient’s plan, it occurred to me to try the effect of a small pellet of moistened cotton wool, gently inserted and applied at the bottom of the passage, so as to come in contact with the small portion of membrane which still remained. The result was astoundingly successful. On the evening of a day in which she had risen from her bed with the sad reflec¬ tion that she must be for ever debarred from social converse and enjoyment, she joined the family dinner¬ party, and heard the conversation which was going on around her with a facility that appeared to all present quite miraculous. Day after day, the remedy was applied with the same marked success, and eventually she learned the art of applying it herself, and thus became independent of me. It was observed that, until the wool could be brought in contact with a par¬ ticular spot at the bottom of the passage, the hearing was not at all benefited, on the contrary, was preju¬ diced; but the moment it was properly adjusted on that particular spot, the hearing was restored. Subse¬ quent experience, in a vast number of cases, confirms this remarkable fact. It is not merely necessary to insert moistened cotton wool to the bottom of the passage. Such a manipulation would in most cases add to the deafness. It is essential to find the spot on which to place the wool, and so adjust it as to produce the best degree of hearing of which the case may happen to be susceptible. This of course differs according to the variety and extent of the disor¬ ganization. I quote the above case, not only because it was the first which it was my happiness to relieve by this novel plan, but because I am in a position to show