Contributions to aural surgery / [W.R. Wilde].

  • William Wilde
Date:
1844-1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to aural surgery / [W.R. Wilde]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the digestive functions or general health, is recommended tonics, sea-beathing, blistering, and an issue in the arm. Notwithstanding that otorrheea of long standing is reputed to be entirely a constitutional affection, I have seldom occasion to prescribe any general alterative or tonic medicine, unless in cases of marked strumous habit, and when the glands of the neck are diseased likewise. With regard to “ drains” and counter-irritation, I occasionally insert an issue in the arm, sometimes to meet the prejudices of the friends or the medical attendants, and sometimes where cases occur that of themselves warrant such a precaution, for instance, where disease of the brain had appeared in other members of the family, or that the aural discharge had broke out on the subsidence of disease of the skin or any vicarious outlet, or that the child had had con* vulsions in infancy, &c. &c.; but these are the exceptions to the rule. Towards the close of an otorrheea from simple chronic otitis, especially in children, I have frequently remarked, that they are liable to slight fresh attacks of otalgia, and sometimes small abscesses form round the mouth of the meatus. These are, I believe, best warded off by the application of a vesicating lini¬ ment behind the ears on the mastoid process, and keeping up this gentle counter-irritation for some little time after the otor- rhoea has ceased. For this purpose the croton oil dissolved in soap liniment; or the tincture of iodine, made stronger and more soluble by the addition of a little hydriodate of potash and the Acetum Lyttce, answers very well. When an otorrhoea, of long standing, from whatever cause it lias arisen, is just ceasing, either of itself or the result of treatment, 1 have found, in a great number of cases, that the dermal lining of the auditory canal becomes enormously thickened; and the cuti¬ cle, which is now redeveloped, and of a white colour, very like the appearance ol the hands when long exposed to the action of hot water, as in washing, is thrown off in patches, and often fills up the passage completely. Such was the condition, and such
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