Practitioner's handbook of diseases of the ear and naso-pharynx / by H. Macnaughton-Jones.

  • Macnaughton-Jones, Henry, 1844-1918.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practitioner's handbook of diseases of the ear and naso-pharynx / by H. Macnaughton-Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    of middle and internal ear affections. This refers to the naso-pharynx as much as to the ear proper. To the aurist the naso-pharynx is part of the aural apparatus. This necessitates accurate knowledge of the anatomy of the nasal fossa and pharynx, a knowledge to be gained only by an examination of the parts in the wet state. The success of the previous editions of this work has encouraged me to prepare this present more compact form. The many valuable larger treatises on the ear are, of course, replete with information on the subject of otology. It has been my experience that these larger works are not carefully or widely read by busy practitioners, and rarely by students. Hence, through the medium of these pages some concise rules for practice, and useful hints on treatment, may be acceptable both to the practitioner and student. In order to do this I shall endeavour to make these observations as simple as possible, and deal principally with those diseases of every-day occurrence, for the treatment of which all practitioners are being constantly consulted. It will not be necessary for this purpose to enter into vexed questions as yet unsettled, but simply to point out the leading principles which should guide the surgeon in arriving at a quick and safe diagnosis in any aural case. Nor is it necessary to distract atten- tion by repeated reference to authorities. To those in general practice, who may still regard the ear as an organ which is the special property of aurists, I would simply say here, that the practitioner who intelligently sets himself to discover the cause of any aural affection or deafness, and rationally applies his remedies for its cure, need not hand the ear over as the special property of any self-constituted authority, but may, in the great majority of ear cases which meet him in daily practice, deal with it himself. This much is certain, that by this more largely diffused and ready knowledge the public would gain infinitely more than is the case at present from the concentration of even a higher degree of skill in the hands of a comparatively few. The prevention of disease and deafness, rather than the frequently futile effort to cure con- ditions which might have been prevented, would be the obvious result. The neglect of the study of aural pathology and therapeutics in the schools I refer to elsewhere in the work.^ The empiricism which suggests a drop of glycerine to be put into the ear-passage night and morning, the use of a counter-irritant behind the ear, the resort to useless and dangerous syringing, has little excuse, if in the false notion that in aural therapeutics if ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise, the hearing of an ear is permanently lost. Yet these I have often known to be the remedies recommended for serious aural affections, by some who would be rightly indignant if they were not looked on as enlightened ' Sue Chapter I.
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