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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    ducing atmospheric air through the Eustachian tube into the middle ear, and also the introduction of certain gaseous sub¬ stances, as, for instance, the vapour of aether into the middle ear for the removal of one of the most incurable maladies—nervous deafness. As a means of diagnosing the condition of the tube and middle ear, it is, and ever will be, highly valuable, nay, in many cases it is indispensable ; but I must confess, that although I have used it very extensively for the last three years, I have not had experience of the same beneficial results from the introduc¬ tion of setherous vapour, as the tuition, or the work of my friend led me to expect; in fact the cases in which it is applicable are comparatively very rare. Kramer’s discoveries, and his most scientific work, seem to have excited a new' taste for aural surgery in Great Britain; and well educated surgeons and honest men have at last come for¬ ward to rescue this branch of the healing art from the hands of quacks and charlatans. The names of Mr. Pilcher, Mr. Wharton Jones, Mr. Toynbee, and Mr. Williams, are now a sufficient guarantee that the empiric and the nostrum-monger will soon be driven from the field. And yet that many of those latter still drive a thriving trade, may be learned from the puffs and praises bestowed upon them in several of the literary periodicals of the day. In one of these, which, from our own knowledge of the honour and integrity of its editors, as well as its hitherto stern and uncompromising stand against quackery of every description, and its high reputation for honesty of purpose and substantial literary merit, we really expected better things, it is not only as¬ serted, but endeavoured to be proved, that by dropping “ an alkaloid” into the external meatus, or rubbing the surface of the membrana tympani with it, persons born deaf and dumb have been almost instantaneously cured ! nay, not only is hear¬ ing restored on the moment, but the miracle (for miracle it certainly is, if true) extends to the organs of speech also, as in one case, and that too given on the faith of a medical man, and conveyed in a letter to the operator; he says, that “ after D
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