HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 54

HEALTH COLUMN.

'{lie Fri'servaiiou of Ifeaiing.

(Condensed from " The Preservation of Hearing," by tSir William 13. Dalby, F.luG.iS., in Longman's Magazine ior July.)

Every man and woman should be aware of what (to use a common expression) is bad for the ear, so that they can avoid placing themselves under such conditions, for example, as might damage the hearing, cause permanent noises in the ear, injure the strucUire of the ear, produce inflammation in the ear 3 or induce the advent of any disease of this part. In short, it is the duty ot' all who put a true estimate on the value of their ears to inform themselves {sufficiently to be aMe to preserve, rather than inn the risk of damaging, either their own or those of their children. In giving such information as may embrace this, and not go beyond it, I wish especially to avoid dealing in any way with what appertains to disease or injuries of the ear, except so fir as guarding against them is concerned. So, in order to understand the following remarks, the briefest outline and the most rudimentary idea of the formation and structure of the ear will be sufficient. It will be enough to know that the entrance to the ear is the beginning of a somewhat curved canal (the external canal of the ear) of l^in in length, and somewhat narrowed about the middle. That at Ihe other md of this canal is a delicate membrane (the tympanic membrane) which protects- and coses the tympanic cavity (the drum of the ear) ; that this small cavity is kept ventilated by air from a narrow tube (the Eustachian tube), the open end of which is placed in the throat in close proximity to the back of the nostrils. Also that in apposition to the drum of the ear is the nervous apparatus of hearing (the labyrinth). It may be added that the drum of the ear is crossed by a chain of three little bones Anyone armed with nothing beyond the very simple information which these few words convey would not allow a child to have its ears boxed, for he would have before his mind the possibility of injuring the delicate membrane referred to, or the nervous structure behind it, and at no great distance from the external ear. If this be no, the desirability of greater knowledge than now obtains on this subject is at once demonstrated. ... It must also be remembered that the hearing is very often irreparably damaged from shock -to the nervous structure which is caused by the sudden compression of air within the external canal, even when the membrane escapes without a "rupture. In short, a violent box on the ear is about as -senseless and cruel a proceeding as a violent blow 'on the eyo. The fact that the eye is in the sight of till, and that the oar is hidden from view, is surely no reason why the latter should be ruthlessly damaged any more than the former. ... It will be seen, then, that there is considerable danger in even a very slight bIoAV, such as might be and is sometimes given when a child creeps up behind anyone, and in play gives them a pat on the car. This will, occasionally, damage the hearing permanently, and induce a troublesome siuginw noise in the ear. The same may also follow any very loud sound, close

to the ear, given in an unexpected manner. A familiar instance of this accident I have on several occasions known to happen from the whistle of an engine, the person whose hearing was damaged standing close up to, lut with his back towards, the engine. . . . It may "be briefly said that most naval men. and artillery men have their hearing damaged at one time or another from guns, and indeed it is only what might be expected from the terrific explosions to which they are exposed on duty; but, besides this, ifc is not ah infrequent experience that a great degree of deafness is traceable rather to some single explo&ion near to which the man has been standing than to the frcquenfc discharges of guns. The old brass guns that used to be employed on training ships were responsible for 'many a damaged ear of the young men, and seem to have had a peculiarly injurious effect, altogether disproportionate to the size of the. gun. In the army the musketry instructor is exposed to gicai risk in this direction, and it is difficult to guard against it. In short, with our soldiers and sailors a certain loss of hearing seems almost inevitable. So far as game shooting is concerned, everyone who shoots a great deal knows perfectly well that the hearing of the left ear after a few years is never so good as that of the right, and when black powder was used instead of the vat'ic>us chemical powders, wood powder, E.,C, and many others, this effect was very much more pronounced. In the Eastern counties, where the shooting is on a large scale, and 400 or 500 shots are constantly fired by one man in one day, the deafness of the left ear so produced used to go by the name of Norfolk deafness. In the old days also of Hurlingham, when the charge was not restricted, as it now is, I hardly knew a man who shot there (and I knew many ot them) who' could hear well with the left ear. Even now, notwithstanding that chemical powders are almost invariably used, of six middle-aged men who are partridge-driving, if they are old hands at it, you might safely say that not one of them has good hearing -with the left ear. I, for one, certainly think it is a small penalty to pay for the years of pleasure which they obtain from the sport, but in dealing with this subject plainly the fact must be mentioned.