Deafness practically illustrated / [James Yearsley].

  • James Yearsley
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    117/200 page 105
    throat is merely examined by the eye. In numerous cases I have verified this interesting observation, and effected cures by the indications of treatment which the knowledge of it afforded. We never can be certain that the tonsils have no share in producing deafness until these bodies have been examined care- fully with the finger. In some instances, where no- thing morbid was visible in the throat, the upper part of the tonsils has been of such magnitude as to produce, in addition to deafness, nasal speech, from encroaching on the posterior nares. These novel views have afforded me the most gratifying results, and I feel assured they will exert considerable influence on the future treatment of deafness. Whether the Eustachian tube be lessened by. the general bulk of the morbid growth, or only by the pressure exerted by enlargement of that part of the gland nearest to the guttural opening, the effect is the same, and is easily explained by a reference to the physiology of the ear. The exclusion of atmospheric air from the cavity of the tympanum is universally allowed to cause deafness. This has been accounted for in various ways: by some it was thought that sounds reached the ear through the Eustachian tube more easily than by the external meatus, and the fact that some deaf persons open their mouths when at- tempting to hear was considered a confirmation of this hypothesis; but it is found that a watch, or any other sound, becomes more indistinct when applied to the vicinity of the tube that when held before the mouth or the auricle. Other physiologists believed the free- dom of the Eustachian tube necessary to admit of the motion of the air of the tympanum, when it vibrated F 3
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