Diseases and injuries of the ear : their prevention and cure / by Charles Henry Burnett.

Charles Henry Burnett

Date:: 1889

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases and injuries of the ear : their prevention and cure / by Charles Henry Burnett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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of nasal respiration, the air of the drum-cavity not being freely renewed, a kind of vacuum is formed in the middle ear, and the external atmosphere forces the drum-membrane inward. In consequence of the mouth-breathing, the tliroat gets dry and finally be- comes sore. The inward tendency of the drum-head carries with it the chain of ossicles, and, as the air does not enter the drum-cavity freely, the bones are held in an abnormal position, and may stiffen while thus held. In such cases the deafness increases, and may become irremediably impaired if relief is not soon given to this unnatural position of the drum and the ossicles. In the early stages of a nasal catarrh which affects also the middle ear, the patient's voice may sound strange to him, and there may be cracking sounds in it, which greatly distress and confuse him. This is largely due to the fact that mucus from the back part of the nose fills the mouth of the Eustachian tubes and causes altered resonance, as it is termed, and the burst- ing of bubbles or movements in the mucus occasion the cracking sounds. After a cracking report in the ear the nose may seem clearer and the hearing is better temporarily. Throat and Palate.—Turning our observation down- ward into the throat, we may find the glands of the back wall of the fauces enlarged. The tonsils may also be enlarged, and at some points in them a gaping mouth of a follicle is seen. In this opening tliere may be a mass of white secretion, which is often mistaken for an ulcer or a diphtheritic membrane. The appear- ances in the throat, however, are not so constant an attendant of aural catarrh as are the changes in the nose.

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