Imperfect hearing and the hygiene of the ear : including nervous symptoms, tinnitus aurium, aural vertigo, diseases of the naso-pharyngeal membrane, middle ear, and mastoid region : with home instruction of the deaf / by Laurence Turnbull.
- Laurence Turnbull
- Date:
- 1881
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Imperfect hearing and the hygiene of the ear : including nervous symptoms, tinnitus aurium, aural vertigo, diseases of the naso-pharyngeal membrane, middle ear, and mastoid region : with home instruction of the deaf / by Laurence Turnbull. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![resides in Minnesota, performing the church work of t. parishes, many miles apart, and teaches school besides. He is married, but no member of his family is deaf. At times he is nervous, but this is accounted for by my finding out lie was an habitual smoker. His allowance is a pipe or two after break a cigar after dinner, and one or two more pipes Cull of toba after supper. In this connection I cannot refrain from calling attention to the fact that the use of tobacco is a cause of func- tional disease of the ear. Dr. Richardson (Diseases of Modern Life), states that he has no doubt that tobacco produces a func- tional disease of the ear, similar to functional disease of the eye, from the same cause. The specific symptoms affecting the hearing are: first, those of confusion, with inability to appreciate distinct sounds, that are either very soft, or unusually loud. This ina- bility gives rise to restlessness and uneasiness upon the part of the listener, who often asks questions with respect to articulate sounds, which by others present are perfectly and distinctly heard. After a short period there is a sudden sharp ringing in the ears. This may occur during or after smoking. Sometimes, if attention be carefully paid to the subject, it may be discovered that some externa] noise, very slight in character, such as the ringing of a distant bell, or the whistling of the wind through a chink, or some far-off musical murmur, has produced the sound that is heard with so much intensity. At other times it comes on appa- rently without any provocation. The man is reading, walking, eating, or is engaged in some amusement, when suddenly there darts through one or the other ear a sharp, shrill, drilling ring, which often seems to come from without, and lasts often for two or three minutes at a time. There is no actual pain during this phenomenon, but great annoyance. The ear is not deaf, and both ears are rarely affected at the same moment. If the symptoms be very much prolonged, it may be attended with giddiness; but in the majority of cases, after running through a commencing, an intensified, and a declining stage, it abruptly terminates. To go on with our case, the duration of this deafness is six years for the right ear, and five for the left. The deafness is still get- ting worse. The patient has had several attacks of quinsy, but has not had an acute attack for one year. The tonsils were found to be enlarged and swollen on both sides. On the right, rising up so high as to be on a line with the orifice of the Eustachian tube, the left tonsil is not quite so swollen, but it has in it nume-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21081785_0085.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
