Otological memoranda : being clinical observations illustrative of the diseases and injuries of the ear / by James Patterson Cassells.

  • Cassells, James Patterson, 1837-1884.
Date:
[1876]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Otological memoranda : being clinical observations illustrative of the diseases and injuries of the ear / by James Patterson Cassells. 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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    The varieties of narrowing of the external meatus usually met with, due to pathological changes, are the slit- like narrowing of the canal at the point of junction of the cartilaginous with the osseous portion, caused by contrac- tion of the fibrous tissue uniting these parts, and the ir- regular narrowing of this latter portion by one or more hyper- ostoses. Both are deserving of notice, because they may not only diminish the hearing, but seriously imperil the life of the patient, by hindering the free exit of natural or morbid secretions. Concerning the origin of these patho- logical states, I think it is sufficiently clear that they are the consequences of disease in other parts of the organ, most frequently of all in the tympanum. That they are, in fact, the consequences of a perverted nutrition,brought about by the greater afflux of blood to the organ. Although I have seen numerous cases in which the canal was almost closed by one or other of these morbid states, I have never seen it completely occluded by them; indeed, I should be disposed to say, inasmuch as I have not seen such a case in the whole of my private and extensive public practice, that such a morbid state of the canal is very seldom met with, i.e., com- plete occlusion due to pathological changes. The treatment that suggests itself in such cases is, the removal of remote disease, and of the consequent hyperasinia, and the establishment of a healthy tone to the tissues. When this is accomplished, the slit-like narrowing may be treated directly by a tangle or sponge-tent. The hyperostoses may be -let alone; as a rule, removal of the irritative cause, in the manner above indicated, arrests then- growth, and they give no more trouble. Case III,—A lady, set. 76, who was almost completely deaf, complained of great and distressing tinnitus in both ears. Her illness was of many years' duration. On examina- tion, the auricles were seen to be pressed flat to the lateral aspect of the head, and the orifices of the canals closed to a mere slit. This latter condition was only in part affected by the manoeuvre which I have already described, as serving to distinguish true collapse from narrowing of the orifice of
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