The treatment of chronic purulent inflammation of the middle ear / by James Erskine.

  • James Erskine
Date:
[1887]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of chronic purulent inflammation of the middle ear / by James Erskine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    quite pleased to abide by the result, because it was thought there was nothing else for it. Often cases present themselves where there could have been no reason whatever for resorting to syringing, and yet that operation had been performed. In giving the history of his case the patient often reports that he had consulted a doctor who syringed the ear, but that the operation had not been followed by any improve- ment in the hearing. The syringe is a very useful instrument,, especially in treating chronic purulent inflammation of the middle ear, but in the various diseases of that organ it must be used with great discrimination and care, and only in the accurate knowledge of the condition of the parts under treatment. For each and all of the popular nostrums for diseases of tlie ear, and the properly dispensed lotions or powders prescribed by members of the profession, something might be said to justify their use in certain conditions and properly applied, but not a single one of them can be used with safety and benefit so long as the actual state of the part has not been accurately ascertained. Therefore, before adopting any particular course of treatment of a case of chronic purulent otitis media, we must first examine it carefully. With regard to the diagnosis of this disease, the history and appearances are quite definite and suflficient for that purpose. Scarlet fever, measles, typhoid fever, diphtheria, tonsillitis, chronic nasal and pharyngeal catarrh, and scrofula are among the commonest causes of the affection. Injury in a small number of cases is set down by the patient as the origin of the disease, and very often in the case of children the mischief is attributed to a box on the ear from the schoolmaster; but on this point, both from my own convictions in the matter, and in the interest of the teacher, I am in the habit of expressing myself as very sceptical I saw one case where severe injury had resulted in the tympanum from a blow on the ear, and it had been occasioned by the baton of a policeman. The duration of this disease varies greatly. An otitis media with a purulent discharge may go on for years and not occasion much destruction of the parts mvolved. The nature of the disease from which the otitis has resulted is one cause of this variation. Scarlet fever, for example,, or diphtheria, soon produces great destruction of the membrana tympani and adjacent parts, while m measles
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