Politzer's text-book of the diseases of the ear and adjacent organs : for students and practitioners / translated at the request of Professor Politzer and edited by James Patterson Cassells.

  • Ádám Politzer
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Politzer's text-book of the diseases of the ear and adjacent organs : for students and practitioners / translated at the request of Professor Politzer and edited by James Patterson Cassells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    789/824 (page 769)
    occurrence of congenital deafness in several children of the same family, without apparent hereditary tendency. Kramer describes one family in which six sons were born deaf and five daughters with perfect senses, while the parents were both healthy. I myselt saw in one family, in which there existed no hereditary disposition, four deaf-mutes out of ten brothers and sisters. The highest number of deaf-mutes hitherto observed in one family, in which there was no hereditary disposition, was eight. The statements of authors on the influence of close inter- marriages on congenital deafness vary, for Boudin attributes the cause of deafmutism to consanguinity of the parents in 25 per cent, of the cases, Mitchell in 6 per cent., Hartmann in 8*1 per cent. Whether unfavourable social relations favour the frequent occurrence of deafmutism is questionable; the fre- quency of the imperfection is very marked among the inhabitants of mountain districts, and may probably be traced to the great number of their close- intermarriages. m Acquired deafmutism is not so often caused by primary affec- tions of the ear as by intra-cranial processes and general diseases. First in importance are epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis, simple meningitis, and hydrocephalus; then the acute infectious diseases, typhus, scarlatina, diphtheritis and measles; and, lastly, primary diseases of the ear, particularly inflammation of the labyrinth (p. 711), panotitis (p. 716), and traumatic injuries of the auditory nerve. The numerical proportion of congenital to acquired cases of deafmutism varies according to the author and the country. The recent statement, that the two forms occur equally often] cannot be accepted as definite, as even by an accurate examina- tion by a specialist in a series of cases, it cannot always be ascer- tained whether the deafmutism is hereditary or acquired. That the data given in deaf and dumb institutions are quite untrust- worthy, is seen from the fact that the author, in a number of cases said to be congenital deaf-mutes, has found changes in the ear (extensive perforations, adhesions of the membrana tympani etc.), which showed without doubt that the deafmutism had been acquired. When deafness is acquired within the first four years of life dumbness almost without exception occurs. If deafness arise between the fourth and seventh years very frequently the power of speech is lost. Sometimes, however, in the case of intelligent children who had already learned to read, it is possible, by careful attention on the part of those having charge of them, to ward off the development of dumbness. Deafness acquired after the seventh year seldom leads to dumbness.* haL?nd*rbneSf- Wit^°Ufc dea^nes,sJ.see the interesting article Mutisme, by Kries- naber, in the Dictionnatrc encyclopedique des Sciences medicates, vol. xi. 49