Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry.

  • Jamieson Boyd Hurry
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    203/306 (page 183)
    Deafness. Deafness may itself tend to further deafness by preventing the accurate adjustment of the tensor tympani to the vibrations of sound that reach the ear. This imperfect accommodation in turn aggravates the disorder. Hence it is that a deaf person is often inattentive and apparently absent-minded. Diminished Resistance. Mitchell Bruce has drawn attention to a form of Circle which is met with when a disease is associated with imperfect repair. The incompleteness of recovery is shown by a disposition to relapse, by a diminished resistance to fresh disease, and with every attack the permanent lesion increases until the cumulative mischief may be very extensive. Catarrh of the middle ear is an illustration of such a condition, as Hartmann has pointed out : “ Even after a complete cure the ear remains a locus minoris resistentice, and the disease recurs readily/’ 1 Another Circle of the same kind is sometimes established when serious and debilitating illness has greatly lowered the resistance of the organism to pathogenic influences. During health a great variety of micro-organisms are present in the normal mucosa of the tympanum without causing any symptoms. If, however, prolonged pyrexia or other noxious influence lowers the resistance and renders the tissues more vulnerable, the pathogenic