History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Otolaryngology 291Then he discussed cerumen, the removal of foreign bodies from the ear, theinjudicious use of the nasal douche, the need for differentiating a defect ofthe conducting from that of the perceiving apparatus, saving needlessapprehension on the part of the patient in assuming all hearing loss ishereditary, mentioned total deafness following cerebrospinal meningitis"and another form of affection of the labyrinth called Maniere's (hisspelling) disease." Jones made a plea for "postmortem examination of thelabyrinth in fatal ones, to understand these mysterious cases." He discussedtinnitus aurium at length speaking of "the depression of spirits which occursin persons who suffer . . . and, in several recorded cases, this isshown to have been the cause of suicide." He spoke of a new work by ProfessorRoosa of New York, "which has no equal in the English language."By the year 1876, Dr. F. C. Hotz reported two instances of death resultingfrom aural disease. (Trans. 111. State Med. Soc, 1876, p. 81.) He quotedWilde who said "after purulent discharge from the ear has once set in wecan never tell how, when or where it may end or what it may lead to." For acase of otogenic meningitis even leeches were placed on the mastoid bone.In commenting on the autopsy findings he stated "an excision— total orpartial—of a carious petrous bone is, of course, not to be thought of; butscraping of the bone with suitable sharp spoons has suggested itself, andindeed has been practiced. (Wolf, Arch, of Ophth. and Otol., v. 1.) It mayanswer very well the beginning of caries, when the bone is very superficiallyeroded, but I believe no one would attempt or endorse the scraping of abone so totally rotten as in our case. Here any operation would have beenequivalent to hastening the fatal exitus." The second case was an acuteotitis media in which phlebitis and thrombosis of the lateral sinus, pyemiaand death ensued within a period of three weeks. Hotz said "The textbooksare remarkably silent about the question of phlebitis resulting fromaural diseases; they content themselves with mentioning the bare fact, thatpatients sometimes die of pyemia in the course of suppuration in the ear."He quoted from Roosa ('Practical Treatise of the Diseases of the Ear,'1873) and from Lebert (Virchow's Archives, v. IX, 1859).Dr. H. Z. Gill of Jerseyville, Illinois, believed that the more commondiseases of the ear were neglected by the general practitioner. (Trans. 111.State Med. Soc, 1876.) In cases of otitis media he used warm applicationsand blisters to the back of the neck, paracentesis if the drum membranebulged. He stated that if physicians would apply themselves, 19 out of 20 earcases would not need an aurist! For earache in children he recommendedpainting around the ear with concentrated tincture of Cimicifuga racemosa.In the 1876 meeting of the Illinois State Medical Society, Moses Gunngave a report on surgery (page 101) in which he commented at considerablelength on the complete extirpation of the larynx. His statement at the