Lectures on diseases and injuries of the ear : delivered at St. George's Hospital / by W.B. Dalby.

  • William Bartlett Dalby
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on diseases and injuries of the ear : delivered at St. George's Hospital / by W.B. Dalby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    iinpro^enieut in heariug remains at'tei- each occasiou. This will sometimes only last a few hours (perhaps the morning following the inHation the patient will be as deaf as ever), and the case will then give some trouble. The good hearing may, however, remain for two or three days; and these patients will only require the air douche a few times. This at least is the general progress of such cases, but of course no rule can be laid down, and every now and then a patient will be under treatment for many weeks, requiring not only constitutional treatment, but local treatment to the posterior nares and pharynx. The portion of the tube first affected was, as we saw, the faucial opening-, and in some instances the whole throat, including this part, will remain for a long* time in the condition we are accustomed to speak of as relaxed. In such instances very great benefit often follows the use of astringent local applications to the throat, and in applying them the object should be to touch freely the orifice of the Eustachian tube. To accomplish this it is convenient to use a brush with a handle curved at right angles, the same kind indeed as is used when the larynx is to be touched. Chloride of zinc 5ss to 5jj or the salt perchloride of iron, 3] to 3j of water, are what I generally recommend. I dare say any powerful astringent would do equally well, but these are what we use here. In this class of cases it is almost needless to say that the throat should be always inspected, and, if possible, the orifice of the Eu- stachian tube be examined with a laryngoscopic mirror.