Medical and surgical science in the United States, specialties, empiricism, &C : enlarged from an article published in the New Orleans Picayune of Feb. 14, 1860 / by F.A. von Moschzisker.

  • Moschzisker, F. A. von (Franz Adolph)
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical and surgical science in the United States, specialties, empiricism, &C : enlarged from an article published in the New Orleans Picayune of Feb. 14, 1860 / by F.A. von Moschzisker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [12] most marked debility ol hearing. Deafness wnich s associated with nervous fevers, hat been frequently observed rom earliest times, and has been admitted according to circum- stances to afford either a favorable or unfavor- able prognosis for the termination of the fever. But, whatever may be the prognostic import- ance of this deafness, it is always of short duration after the patient recovers. Depressing mental affections, grief •ire, melancholy, violent terror, &c.,act much more permanently, and in a far more decidedly in- jurious mode on the vital power of the audi- tory nerve ; they give rise to the most obsti- nate cases of nervous deafness. The methods of observation of diseases of the ear, as well as the optical, acoustic and other instruments employed in their diagnosis, have been very much improved within the last ten years. Such improvements are of great practical im- portance ; this branch of the healing art having been long retarded or kept in its primary or empirical state, for want of that guiding light which can only be supplied by an established and scientific pathology. Yet with all these advances of aural pathology and improved methods of diagnosis, the gene- ral practitioners are still in the habit of pre- scribing oils, and blisters, without any further examination as to the causes; squirting hot water into the ear is a favorite prescription.