Manual of diseases of the ear : including those of the nose and throat in relation to the ear, for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by Thomas Barr, M.D.

  • Barr, Thomas, 1846-1916
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Manual of diseases of the ear : including those of the nose and throat in relation to the ear, for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by Thomas Barr, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    n.] DISTURBANCE OF SIGHT, SMELL, AND TASTE. sensation over the corresponding side of the head is often spoken of by patients suffering from acute catarrhal conditions of the middle ear. Some patients, especially those who are neurotic, complain very much of a sense of pressure on the top of the head, especially in connection with chronic non-exudative catarrh. VIII. DISTURBANCE OF THE SENSORIUM. Nervous Phenomena. A feeling of heaviness, confusion, or depres- sion is often mentioned by patients suffering from affections of the middle ear, and they may also assert that an amount of mental work, which they could at one time perform with ease, has now become impossible. These symptoms probably occur in persons whose nerve force or resisting power is either naturally weak or has been impaired by causes acting on the system independently of ear disease. The distracting influences of noises in the ear, which frequently attend these affections, may have something to do with the causation of nervous phenomena. A special form of diminished power of mental application, termed by Professor Guye “ aprosexia,” is frequently noticed in children affected with post-nasal growths and exudative catarrh of the middle ear. Intra-cranial Symptoms. The more serious symptoms indicative of intra-cranial disease, such as stupor, delirium, convulsions, coma, and paralysis, may be met with in connection with the intra-cranial com- plications of purulent middle ear disease. It is to be noted, however, that acute affections of the middle ear may, in infants and very young children, be attended by such symptoms without meningitis or other intra-cranial disease. Only by very careful examination of the ear in these cases will the aural origin of the symptoms be discovered. IX. PYREXIAL SYMPTOMS. Increase of temperature and other symptoms of febrile disturbance occur in most cases of acute purulent inflammation of the middle ear, and, less frequently, in non-purulent inflammation. Acute mastoid inflammations are also generally attended by rise of temperature. In certain cases these symptoms are very marked, and a temperature of 102° F. is not uncommon. Even in the acute inflammations of the external canal, some elevation of temperature is usual. When meningitis or thrombosis of the lateral sinus occurs, the feverish disturbance becomes, of course, a very notable feature of the case. X. DISTURBANCE OF SIGHT, SMELL, AND TASTE. Disturbance of vision is rarely caused by an ear affection; but it may be associated with hereditary syphilitic disease of the labyrinth, in the form of iritis, or keratitis, or both. Of course, in the intra-cranial