An account of a solar and gas speculum : and of an obstinate disease of the ear successfully treated / by J. Togno.

  • Togno, Joseph
Date:
[1838?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of a solar and gas speculum : and of an obstinate disease of the ear successfully treated / by J. Togno. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    * * ^ * * * * *You may rely on it, my dear sir, if I hear of any case of deafness I shall (if I am obliged to walk miles) go to tell the sufferer of the success you have had with me, and recom- mend him to you. I shall see you again before I leave this place, and th?nk you personally for the kindness and good feeling shown to me whilst I wa* under your care« May God prosper you, and send you as many patients as you deserve for your constant patience and industry. Washington House, October dth. JAMES HEILBRON. Having a personal knowledge of Mr. Heilbron, and the circumstances con- nected with his case, I feel proud to add my testimony; and allow me, my dear sir, to congratulate you on your complete success in restoring Mr. H. to his hearing. Yours, with respect. To Dr. Togno. A. J. H. Duncan. Observations on this case,—The disease was perfectly cured, without producing any bad consequences, by gradually arresting the discharge, and by curing the caries of the bones; and this contrary to the erroneous opinions given by many physicians, who had been consulted in the case, because they had no appro- priate apparatus to examine the ear, and to ascertain its real condition.— They were misled by a general notion of the positive danger that exists, in some cases, of stopping a discharge of purulent matter when coming from the ear, and feared to arrest a symptomatic discharge of puriform matter, when from the carious state of the petrous portion of the temporal bone, by which often the death of the patient may be caused, if it be too quickly or imprudently or injudiciously done, as in many cases related in Dr. Itard’s work. We are fully aware of this rash consequence, when the symptoms indicate that the caries has already reached the cavity of the cranium, and of the deadly consequences of an improper treatment by astringents in such a case, as it is but too often practiced. In this case, on the contrary, the silver probe and the eye told us the real state of the carious bone, and the total absence of lancinating pains told us the rest. Hence our treatment with nitrate of silver and mucilaginous injections to en- courage the discharge, protect the parts from the acrimony of the secreted matter, and restore the tissues to their healthy condition. The result proved that our views were correct. We particularly instance this case, because it emphatically showed how easily the observer may be laid into an erroneous diagnosis, simply from the wmnt of an appropriate instrument to ascertain the real condition of the parts affected. For further information on this interesting subject, we refer the reader to Dr. Itard’s learned work on the Ear,
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