Handbook of diseases of the ear : for the use of students and practitioners / by Urban Pritchard.

  • Pritchard, Urban, 1845-1925.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of diseases of the ear : for the use of students and practitioners / by Urban Pritchard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    101/318 (page 79)
    Diseases. Inflammation of the Meatus.—This may be divided into circumscribed and diffuse. Circumscribed inflammation or furunculosis is a very- common disease affecting the cartilaginous portion of the meatus. Cause.—Except when they result from diabetes, change of diet, debility or such like, it is not known with accuracy what are the causes which predispose to the production of boils in the meatus, but the exciting causes which favour their development in other parts of the body act in the same way with regard to the meatus; as for instance where the latter is bathed in the purulent discharge from suppuration of the middle ear. Dr. Lcewenberg, of Paris, has, however, thrown some light on the subject by having discovered certain minute organisms in the contents of the boil, which no doubt will account for the great tendency there is to recurrence; according to this observer the sebaceous glands, into which the organisms have found their way, form the seat of the disease. Symptoms and Course.—As a rule there is intense pain, sufficient to keep the patient awake at night. But the degree of pain depends not only upon the amount of inflammation, but also upon its site, for when very superficial there is little or even none. If, however, it is deep-seated, and especially if the fissures of Santorinus become involved, the pain is extreme ; the reason being that in these situations the tissues are very rigid, and free swelling being interfered with the nerve-endings are subjected to greater pressure. When the swelling is very great, the meatus becomes blocked and gives rise to a considerable amount of