DEAFNESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 86, 8 October 1941, Page 11

DEAFNESS

EDUCATIONAL TALK

HARD OF HEARING LEAGUE

Anatomy of the ear and the main causes of deafness were the subject of the second of a series of lectures in the educational campaign now being conducted by the Wellington branch of the New Zealand League for the Hard of Hearing: It was given recently by Dr. W. J. Hope-Robertson, who explained his points with the use of a large model of the human ear. ■ After dealing with the structure of the ear, with its outer, middle, and inner components, the lecturer said that' the causes of deafness could roughly be considered according to the anatomy of the ear. Obstructive deafness, he said, occurred in the external ear, and the chief cause was impacted wax, which usually required the use of a syringe for its removal. Conductive deafness occurred in the middle ear, and arose as a result of disease in the structures which surrounded the lower end of the eustachian tube, namely, the tonsils and the adenoids and nasal sinuses. Periodic deafness arose in the capsule which surrounded the inner ear, and went under the name of otosclerosis. There was still controversy as to the exact causation of this disease. Some believed that it arose in the same way as conductive deafness, that was, as a - e iult of an infection conducted up the eustachian tube. ■ Others considered it arose from inherent degenerative causes. i Perceptive deafness occurred either in the inner ear, the auditory nerve, or the brain itself. This type of deafness might occur as a result of new growths in the brain or auditory nerve. It could also occur as a result of poisons in the blood, such as excess of quinine or nicotine, and also poisons produced by germs which might be situated in abscesses about teeth, septic tonsils, septic appendix,. or septic gall bladder, or, in fact, any septic spot in the body. In these days of high speeds numerous cases of perceptive deafness arose as a result of a fracture of. the skull which involved the inner ear. Venereal disease was also an important cause of deafness. In dealing with deafness in very young children the doctor drew attention to the great amount of deafness which occurred in cretins. He pointed out that cretins were usually born of goitrous parents, and sug» gested that the League for the Hard of Hearing should associate itself with any measures which were taken to I help prevent the great incidence of goitre in New Zealand. In answering questions the lee- I turer pointed out how dangerous it I was for any person, while bathing, to jump into the water feet first. He instanced numerousv cases where acute ears, requiring operation, had arisen within a few hours of such practice.