The nose and throat in medical history / by Jonathan Wright.

  • Jonathan Wright
Date:
[1898?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nose and throat in medical history / by Jonathan Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of Cyrus in Bellini’s portrait of the Sultan Mohammed.* We learn from the Old Testament (Levit. XXI, 18) that there was a prejudice among the Patriarchs against flat-nosed people. But in spite of these predilections of the Caucasian race we find among the native negroes and the Chinese different ideals as to the beauty of the nose. “The ancient Huns during the age of Attila were accustomed to flatten the noses of their infants with bandages for the sake of exaggerating a natural conformation. With the Tahitians to be called long-nosed is an insult and they compress the noses and foreheads of their children for the sake of beauty. So it is with the Malays of Sumatra, the Hottentots, certain negroes and the natives of Brazil.”f In attempting to present an outline of the growth of our knowl- edge of the nose and throat and of their diseases, it must be remembered that a complete and intelligent review of the subject can not be obtained by beginning our study with the discovery or rather with the introduction of the use of the laryngoscope. That would be a consideration of the history of laryngoscopy and its sequelae in the history of the diseases of the upper-air tract, and of the growth and development of technical skill. However great may have been the revolution wrought by Tiirck and Czermalc in this field, the history of rhinology and laryngology begins not with the invention of the speculum and the laryngeal mirror, but with the earliest records of the civilization of man. In fact, it is reason- able to conjecture that it is only the lack of records which pre- vents us from tracing knowledge of the diseases of the nose and throat still further back into prehistoric times. It must necessaril)' be that any disease of the respiratory system causing obstructive dyspnea, or any affections causing deformity and discharge from the nose, would have attracted the attention of the medicine men of our primeval ancestors. Injuries to the head must, as frequently then as now, have involved the nasal organ. Indeed, we shall find in the very earliest Hindu and Greek records evidences of the care and attention devoted to the study of this branch of the medical art. We shall also find that to some extent the nose and nasal disease in the earliest times possessed proportionately a larger interest for medical men than it did in more recent and more enlightened times, until the beginning of the growth of what we are pleased to call Modern Rhinology. Exposed to accidental and * This may be conveniently referred to in Mrs. Olipliant’s “Makers of Venice.’ t Darwin’s “Descent of Man, Part III, Chap. XIX.