A Text-book of the diseases of the ear and adjacent organs / by Dr. Adam Politzer ; translated and edited by James Patterson Cassells.

  • Ádám Politzer
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A Text-book of the diseases of the ear and adjacent organs / by Dr. Adam Politzer ; translated and edited by James Patterson Cassells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    pharynx, as the escape of vapours into that cavity often causes great itching, hawking with cough, congestion and swelling of the mucous membrane, and increased secretion. When I first employed this highly recommended method of treatment, at the beginning of my career as a practitioner, I asked myself the question whether the vapours really reached the middle ear in such quantities as was generally supposed. I undertook, therefore, a number of experiments on human organs of hearing to ascertain the manner in which the vapours entered into the middle ear. The experiments with different kinds of vapours gave different results. Of simple or medicated steam, which was so frequently used, only a very trifling quantity reached the tympanic cavity in the form of vapour, as a portion of the steam is condensed even in the conducting-tube and in the catheter, while another portion is so during the outflow from the point of the catheter at the narrowest place of the Eustachian tube. Of the condensed steam only a part will, therefore, be pro- pelled into the middle ear by the current of ah in a fluid form, while the greater portion runs off into the naso-pharynx. Sal- ammoniac vapour will also be condensed at the narrowest place in the Eustachian tube, and only small quantities of it will reach the tympanic cavity in vapour form. Of easily condensed vapours very little, or nothing, will reach the tympanic cavity, especially when the lining membrane of the tube is greatly re- laxed, and a considerable portion of the canal is narrowed. How- ever, the subtle vapours of chloroform, of su] auric ether, of the various ethereal oils, of acetic ether, of turpemme, and of iodine, can be propelled in greater quantities into the tympanic cavity even where there are considerable obstacles in the Eustachian tube. Of the different kinds of gases, carbonic acid especially was formerly frequently applied. The apparatuses designed by Kuete and Kau (Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde, p. 143) for the development of this gas are, however, much too complicated. The simplest manner of effecting the development of carbonic acid, and its introduction into the middle ear, is to collect in the pyriform india-rubber balloon the carbonic acid, which is de- veloped in a good-sized bottle, half filled with a solution of soda, by the addition of tartaric acid, and to press it through the catheter into the middle ear. Loewenberg* has recently recommended, instead of atmospheric air, the application of hydrogen gas or breathed air, collected hi a bladder for the air-douche. The statement of Loewenberg, that the effected increase in the hearing will last longer when breathed air is applied than when atmospheric ah is used, I cannot confirm after repeated experiments. * AcacUmie des Sciences, 1876.