Treatise on the ear : including its anatomy, physiology and pathology : for which the author obtained a gold medal in the University of Edinburgh / by Joseph Williams.

Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Treatise on the ear : including its anatomy, physiology and pathology : for which the author obtained a gold medal in the University of Edinburgh / by Joseph Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    undertook a journey to Italy for the purpose of visit- ing the different experimenters by whom much had been published. He repeated the experiments in their own presence; and though he found that in particular cases, such as diseases of the eyes, the ear, and the head, and in some instances of paralysis, the patients had found considerable relief, yet he was convinced that in other instances the effects were greatly exag- gerated, &c.^ Haller tried it on one of his relations for twenty days, and found so little benefit as not to have patience to continue. MM. Poma and Rainaud tried it in four cases without any success.''^ Amongst other means which have been employed, may be mentioned mineral and animal magnetism; the former is said to have been once successfully applied by Klarich.^ Hag- stroem tried animal magnetism upon a patient he thought likely to be benefited by it, for three months without any success.^ To apply electricity or galvanism to an ear, where there is great local congestion, preternatural excite- ment, inflammation, or an obstructed Eustachian tube, would be the height of absurdity; but by selecting proper cases, such as the following, related by Magen- die, or when dependent upon any of the functional derangements, more especially of the nerve, these elec- trical agents may become a powerful remedy, in the hands of an experienced person.^ ^ See Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. 7 Journal de Medecine. Nov. 1787. See Diet, des Sciences Med. t, xxxviii, p. 124. 8 Diet, des Sciences Med. t. xxxviii. p. 123. Kramer, p. 50. 9 Journal de Medecine. 1793. 1 Hearing is said to have been restored by a sudden flash of lightning. [Mason Good.] See Bresl. Samml. 1718. p. 1641.