The ear in health and disease : with practical remarks on the prevention and treatment of deafness / by William Harvey.

  • Harvey, William, 1807-1876.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ear in health and disease : with practical remarks on the prevention and treatment of deafness / by William Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    54/264 (page 42)
    colchicum, and guaiacum are also important adjuncts, adapted to the treatment of special forms of ear disease, and will receive due notice in the following pages. Many cases also require the sustained exhibition of quinine, iron, arsenic, and other tonics, in well-regulated doses. LOCAL TREATMENT. A few observations on the use of the syringe may not be out of place. It is not necessary that every deaf | patient should be subject to a torrent of water forced j against the delicate membrane of the tympanum, or the lining membrane of the meatus, with a powerful syringe. Much mischief has occasionally been done by this routine practice. The following rules, it is hoped, may not be considered too trifling, or unimportant for insertion. 1. The syringe is only required when any foreign body or hardened wax is impacted in the canal, or when I lotions are necessary to wash out the discharges, or to amend the morbid conditions of the parts. 2. The • water used for injection should be pure and warm, i The addition of soap is unnecessary, as water is the : best solvent of the cerumen. 3. The syringe should not 3 [ be so large as to contain more than two ounces, as, if it! be large, the force exerted in using it may be too great, ] and may cause mischief. Sounding the membrane with a probe is a barbarous ] and irrational, though common practice, directed to no useful or intelligible end; and it cannot be too much | condemned, as it is often mischievous, and cannot teach 8 anything which is not discoverable by the speculum. Local applications, such as injections or lotions, used during the period of a discharge from the ear, should be applied warm, and the best syringe is a small elastic gum bottle. It must be understood that this mode of proceeding is to be conducted with the greatest gentle- ness. If leeches be required during the progress of