Manual of diseases of the ear : including those of the nose and throat in relation to the ear : for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by Thomas Barr and J. Stoddart Barr.

  • Barr, Thomas, 1846-1916
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Manual of diseases of the ear : including those of the nose and throat in relation to the ear : for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by Thomas Barr and J. Stoddart Barr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    m.] ear disease, but the exact nature of the causative relation is not clear. An attack of mumps is sometimes attended by permanent and total deafness in one or in both ears, from some as yet unknown change in the labyrinth. In leukaemia, haemorrhage may take place into the labyrinth or tympanum. Hysteria, pregnancy, and the period of lactation are occasionally associated with disturbance of the hearing. Serious aggravation of a previously existing deafness often follows parturition. Deafness is occasionally observed during puerperal fever. Organic disease of the heart, lungs, or large vessels, by causing stasis of the venous circulation in the head, or by producing undue arterial tension, may lead to hyperaemia of the mucous membrane of the nose, throat, and ear, passing, it may be, into distinct tissue changes. Medicinal Substances. Certain medicinal substances, notably quinine, salicin, opium, and alcohol, may induce disturbance in the organ of hearing, especially hypersemia of the inner ear, producing deafness or some form of tinnitus. They have a more injurious effect if disease already exists in the ear, when even small doses may distinctly aggravate the aural symptoms, and the aggravation is in some cases permanent. Y. KEFLEX CAUSES. Morbid impressions are sometimes transmitted to the ear in a reflex way through the vaso-motor nerves, from various parts of the body. The effect of cold feet, in exciting inflammatory affections of the middle ear, is an example of this form of reflex influence. But probably the most marked instance is the production of neuralgic or even inflammatory affections in the ear by the process of teething in the child, or by caries of the teeth in the adult. The connection of the dental nerves with the middle and external ear, through the otic and Meckel’s ganglia, is probably the path by which the irritation is transmitted from the teeth to the ear. Sympathetic hypersemia of the ear probably also arises from reflex sympathy with the digestive organs and, in the female, with disturbances of menstruation and the menopause. YI. MICRO-ORGANISMS AS CAUSES OF EAR DISEASE. In the production or maintenance of certain forms of ear disease, micro- organisms play a very important part. Favourable Conditions in the Ear. When we consider the struc- ture of the ear, especially the accessory cavities of the middle ear, the numerous air-filled spaces, warm and moist, and the tendency to the accumulation of inflammatory and other debris; when, further, we remember its communication with the nose, throat, and outer air, it is not surprising that it should be the seat of bacterial activity.