Defective hearing : its causes and treatment / by James Keene.

  • Keene, James, 1834-1883.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Defective hearing : its causes and treatment / by James Keene. 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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    the passage or non-passage of air through the nostrils. Having thus arrived at the conclusion that nasal consonants can only be properly pro- nounced when air passes through the nose, it will be evident that any cause which gives rise to nasal obstruction will also give rise to the form of thickness of speech commonly, though improperly, termed “ speaking through the nose.” The defect may vary in degree from an amount scarcely perceptible in some cases to the most aggravated and unpleasant extent in others; but, wherever present, it may be con- sidered as a symptom of obstruction to the nasal air-passages, and indicates a diseased condition in some part of their course. Increase in quantity or tenacity of the nasal secretion, im- pairment of taste or smell, as well as heavy breathing and snoring, have a similar import, and some one of these indications will be found to have preceded most cases of deafness. This is in no way surprising when we re- member that at least four-fifths of all cases of defective hearing are due to disease of the middle ear, and of this number, in by far the largest proportion, the affection spreads to the Eustachian tubes from the naso-pharynx. The continuity of surface between the parts readily