239

WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Saturday, October 26th, 1839.

DR. CHOWNE, President.ON THE STUDY OF EAR DISEASES.

Part of the evening was occupied by theelection of officers for the current session.

Mr. JOSEPH TOYNBEE read a paper, thechief object of which was to demonstrateto the profession the present very de-graded state of aural surgery ; the practiceof which had, through its neglect by legiti-mate practitioners, become synonymous withcharlatanism. He proceeded in his paperto remark on the importance of the study ofaural surgery, and the great facilities whichmodern continental practitioners had, bytheir inventions and labours, afforded to thestudent in this branch of science. The in-juries inflicted upon the community by the ’advertising 11

surgeon aurists" were incal- !culable, and to those who had no opportu- I,nities of seeing them, almost incredible.One specimen of the manner in whichpatients were treated by these heartlessadventurers, was mentioned by the author ;we give the case in his own worde :-« Apatient with chronic inflammation of themembrana tympani, with purulent dis-

charge, now under my care, was sent by amedical man to an institution founded tor

curing diseases of the ear. The history ofthe case of that patient, as detailed in mynote-book, is a good illustration of the usehitherto made of the institution. The patientsays, that having obtained a letter, she ap-plied to the institution. She waited in asmall room opening into the street, until itwas full, and the people assembling formeda crowd on the pavement around the streetdoor; that after they had waited there acertain time, half a dozen were let into ’,another room, where they stood in a row,the question asked them being, "Have anyof you been here before ?" Those who hadnot, gave their names and address, whichwere entered upon the case book. Theirsymptoms were not heard, their ears werenot examined, but, nevertheless, drops orpowders were given. It fell to the lot of

my patient to receive some most acrid drops,which were directed to be applied to theear; they were so applied, and producedexcruciating pain. This the poor creatureendured, and repeated the application,hoping thus to be effectually cured. Theresult was, as the drawings in my note-booktestify, an almost entire destruction of themembrana tympani on each side." Thewriter of the paper then proceeded to de-clare that most of the English works ondiseases of the ear were beneath criticismThe recent production of Pilcher, and thepapers of Wharton Jones were, however,

valuable additions to our knowledge on thesubject. The greater part of Mr. Toynbee’saddress consisted of demonstrations of thevarious manoeuvres which continental prac-titioners have resorted to for the purpose ofcoming to a correct diagnosis respecting eardiseases. We are consequently unable tomake the more valuable portion of the busi-siness of the evening available for a report.Mr. Toynbee passed, with great facility,the Eustachian catheters on himself andothers ; he demonstrated the use of thespeculum auris, the frontal bandage, a mo-dification of Kramer’s air press, and otherapparatus; and concluded by exhortingthe members, and the profession in general,to gain a knowledge of diseases of the ear,and the means for treating them on scientificprinciples.A discussion of considerable length took

place, but nothing novel was elicited.

Saturday, November 2, 1839.

MR. STREETER, PRESIDENT.

DISEASE OF THE EAR.-SOFTENING OF THE

CEREBELLUM.

Mr. RODERICK related the following case.Miss - aged 9, a private patient of Mr.Callaway, had never been of a strong habitof body, but had in general enjoyed a goodstate of health, until the beginning of theyear 1835, when she became affected withscarlet fever, but soon recovered. Soonafter convalescence, however, she becamesubject to deafness, with pain in the leftear, accompanied by a discharge of a thinpurulent secretion of a fostid odour. An11 aurist" was consulted, who ordered aninjection, probably of the sulphate of zinc,into the ear, with little- benefit.

On Monday, the 19th of March, 1838, thepain in the ear became suddenly much moreacute, and occupied a much larger portion ofthe side of the head than on former occasions.So extensive was the seat of this pain, thatpressure applied to the mastoid process,caused a considerable aggravation of hersufferings. Pulse 80 and compressible.On the 20th the pain in the head was moresevere, and occupied the greater part of theleft’side of the cranium. She also complainedthat the eyes were somewhat irritable, andthat she could not bear the light of a candle.On the 22nd the pupil of the right eye wasobserved to be somewhat larger than that ofthe left, though it was still obedient to theimpression of light. There were, occasi.onally, convulsive movements of both theupper and lower extremities of the rightside. During the intermission, however,of the latter, she possessed full power overboth extremities. About nine o’clock on theevening of the 22nd, she called for coffee,which being swallowed, was immediatelyvomited. The pulse was now 70 and rather