Diseases of the upper respiratory tract - the nose, pharynx and larynx / by P. Watson Williams, M.D., Lond.

  • Williams, P. Watson (Patrick Watson), 1863-1938.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the upper respiratory tract - the nose, pharynx and larynx / by P. Watson Williams, M.D., Lond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    Chapter XX. DISEASES OF THE SEPTUM. PERFORATION, DEFLECTIONS AND SPURS, ETC., EPISTAX1S, ABSCESS. PERFORATION OF THE SEPTUM. Perforation of the septum was found by Zuckerkandl eight times in 150 autopsies, and is, therefore, more frequent than is generally supposed. In many cases it causes no symptoms and is without significance, and certainly it cannot be held that perforation of the carti- laginous septum is a proof of syphilis. It may be due to simple ulceration in dry rhinitis, from picking with the finger nail, to idiopathic periostitis, or result from an abscess following a blow. Perforation sometimes occurs in lupus and malignant disease, and then the cause is obvious. But the commonest cause is syphilis. When only the cartilage is involved, symptoms arc absent, but if the perforation involves the bony septum, foetor is almost invariably present in very marked degree. The bridge of the nose only becomes sunken when the nasal bones arc diseased. I have known the whole septum to have completely disappeared without any falling in of the nose at all. SEPTAL DEFLECTIONS, CRESTS, AND SPURS. Deviation of the septum may almost be regarded as its normal condition, for it is only in comparative]}- few persons that it is absolutely straight. Morell Mackcn-