Deafness practically illustrated / [James Yearsley].

  • James Yearsley
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Deafness practically illustrated / [James Yearsley]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and as yet an untrodden field for the student of aural disease. By modern writers, the most obvious con- nexion between deafness and diseased tonsils, that in which the enlargement presses on the guttural extre- mity of the Eustachian tube, has been overlooked. Kramer entirely denies the existence of deafness from this cause, and Itard scarcely refers to the subject; though it was held-to be of much importance by many earlier writers. Among others, Wathen mentions it as — one of the sources of deafness most certain to be removed “by chirurgical assistance;” and Valsalva relates a case of ulcerated tonsil, in which the presence of a tent blocked up the Eustachian tube and occa- sioned deafness, showing most satisfactorily what Kramer seems to deny, that these passages may be obstructed at their guttural extremities. By some it has been denied that the tonsil glands can ever obstruct the tube, on the ground that when the tonsils are enlarged to any extent, they become pendulous, and are removed by their weight from the natural position. This is by no means true, if assumed as the general rule, or indeed in any sense but as a rare exception. I have pointed out that, when it does occur, the functions interfered with are those of deglutition and respiration. In the most frequent kind of enlarged tonsils, where the glands maintain their original position, or at least extend in every direction, the Eustachian tubes are generally compressed. There is another variety of enlargement which I am not aware has ever before been noticed; it is where the diseased growth is con- fined to the upper margin of the tonsil, and which, from being hidden behind the veil of the palate and the anterior palatine arch, is quite out of sight when the
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