Deafness from Cold.

Otago Witness, Issue 2116, 13 September 1894, Page 44

Deafness from Cold.

A most essential thing for the avoidance of deafness is to run no risk of catohing cold Jin the head— perhaps its most common source. Although our variable climate has much to do with this complaint, still, in a great majority of instances, carelessness and lack of common sense are far more accountable for it. Thus, some persons go about either over or under clad : a lady in the middle of a mild wihter'a day, for example, harries hither and thither oppressively warm ill her thick sealskin jacket ; but at night, frhen a frost has just set in, ehe attends a ball in a low muslin dress. What wonder (hat severe cold and core throat result. Again, cold in the head, the precursor of ear disease, is often due to reckless sitting or 1 Standing in draughts. A man, after heating nimielf in running to catch a train, elects Jo grow cool by travelling with bis face cowards yHB FULL CUBBENT OB 1 AIE kxojn an open window, and Y«ry soon, in JsGnigSLUSnce. his friend* Jiavfi to jcommlner&lw

with him upon a stiff neck or earache. Other and similar sources of danger to the ear are exposure to wet, damp feet, neglect to change the clothes after excessive perspiration, and cutting the hair too short, or washing it at bed-time. The ear is much more liable to be affected by a succession of slight attacks of cold than by a single severe one. What are the several pathological processes involved in taking cold it would be beside our purpose here to discuss in detail. Suffice it to say that the vessels supplying the mucous membrane from the nose to the month expand, ana the blood -within them flows slowly or stagnates — that is, THE MUCOUS MEMBRANE BECOMES CONGESTED. As a result, there is more or leS3 swelling, with augmentation of the natural secretions. Tne congestion is apt to be continued into the mucous membrane of the Eustachian tube, and thence it may spread to that of the tympanum. By degrees, as one cold after another is caught, the mucous membrane becomes permanently thickened, and the functions of other structures, notable the little ear-bones, are interfered with. When, by the thickening of .the walls of the Enstachian tube, the , passage of the air

through it> to the drum is blooked, the tympanic membrane soon gets to be unduly pushed inwards by atmosphere pressure; and we have already seen how important it is for

THE INTEGRITY OP THE HEAKING that the membrane be free to vibrate naturally. Some little apace has above been devoted to the subject of cold-catching, firstly, because aural disease, particularly aurol catarrh, due thereto, is very common ; and, secondly, because generally amenable to treatment when early attended .to, yet, if neglected, it induces deafness of a usually most severe and intraotable character. Nearly every day of my life do I see

PATIENTS who have become deaf — many shockingly bo — merely from neglected aural catarrh ; and some have put off seeking .advice until too late. Those cases are the most successful which have come early under treatment. — From the Family Physician for July.