Deafness

“ Of that form of deafness in which neither consanguineous marriages nor antecedent deafness is involved, we are at present, as we have noted, able to say little definitely. In most cases we may be convinced that there exists in the parent some peculiar state of morbidity or other affection, latent or manifest, perhaps to some extent of hereditary influence, which has an effect on the organs of hearing of the offspring. A certain proportion is quite possibly due to recognizable defects both of physical and mental character. ”

“ That difficulty has its ground in the unwillingness of parents to admit that their children -were born deaf. Their deafness is often attributed to some infantile disease, though the defect is congenital. On the other hand, when they have lost the sense of hearing at an early age, they may be included among the congenitally deaf. But all institutions for the deaf and dumb contain instances which illustrate scientific investigations, and establish the position that such causes as those now alluded to tend to induce and perpetuate the disease of deafness. ”

“ I wrote to a fellow who advertises to cure deafness instantaneously by electro-acoustico magnetism, and the impudent impostor [Pg 6] hasn’t taken the trouble to answer. The whole world seems determined to thwart me. (Takes book again, and reads.) “In treating deafness, it should first be ascertained whether the tympanum be thickened or perforated, and whether also the minute bones of the auricular organ are yet intact.” (Sticks little finger in his ear.) I think they’re all right. (Reads.) “And, further, be certain that the Eustachian tube is free from obstruction.” ”

“ I had secretly arrived at the conclusion that my deafness was increasing, and that my friends knew it and were concealing it from me. Determined to put my suspicions to the test, I took long solitary walks in the neighborhood of my country home, and tried to hear the new sounds about me. ”

“ This observation may throw some light on the medical treatment of deaf people; as it may be learnt from their dreams whether the auditory nerve be paralytic, or their deafness be owing to some defect of the external organ. ”

“ That a slight deafness, which does not prevent a person from hearing when he is expecting to be spoken to, will make him very dull to what he is not expecting. 3. That there is a kind of deafness in which a person can hear pretty well while listening, but is really very hard of hearing when not listening.
Avoid Direct Draughts in the Ear.—There are some exposures especially to be guarded against. One is sitting or driving with the ear exposed to a side wind. Deafness has also been known to come from letting rain or sleet drive into the ear. ”

“ Their relation to deafness consists apparently for the greatest part in the fact that the chances of its transmission are thereby intensified, there being also a very strong connection with the question of deaf relatives in general.
8. There are a certain number of families in society deeply tainted with deafness, in evidence both lineally and collaterally, and this deafness may be transmitted from parent to offspring.
9. Children of deaf parents are far more likely to be deaf than children of hearing parents. ”

“ In the outlook there is, on the whole, promise, both in respect to the treatment of deafness itself and of the diseases that lead to deafness, though it cannot be said in any sense that any large or general relief is at present in sight. ”

“ Stroud Street, Dover, the first application of which gives immediate relief, restoring the hearing in the most confirmed stages of deafness, whether from old age, nervousness, or any predisposing cause, to which children and adults are subject, and from which deafness follows the heavy affliction of noises in the head and ears, immediately removed by its use. ”

“ Again, in middle-ear deafness, hearing may be better in a noisy place, and be improved by inflation of the tympanum; while in labyrinthine deafness, hearing may be better in a quiet room, and be rendered worse by inflation. ”

“ In the latter case we are called upon to examine some of the great problems involved in the study of heredity, especially in respect to the extent that the offspring is affected by defects or abnormalities of the parent, and to see what, if any, means are at hand to alter conditions that bring about this form of deafness. We shall first discuss the causes of adventitious deafness, together [17] with the possibilities of its prevention and the likelihood of its diminution, and then consider the questions involved in congenital deafness. ”

“ The causes assigned for congenital deafness are consanguineous marriages, hereditary transmission, weak constitutions of parents, scrofula, climate, and the ill-health of the mother at a certain period of life. There is necessarily difficulty in ascertaining the real cause of deaf ness. ”

“ He stated that it is a very common cause of deafness and can seldom be cured; that the bringing of the uneven pressure on the Eustachian tube or other parts had broken away the secretion which had cemented these small bones together and permitted the ear-drum to vibrate as it should, and probably that was the only way in which she could have been helped. I am publishing this incident in the hope that it may lead to the construction of scientific apparatus for the cure of deafness in cases where the deafness is caused by trouble similar to that of the professor's wife. ”

“ Of the classified cases of deafness, according to the census, 56.3 per cent are due to diseases affecting the middle ear, and 42.7 per cent to diseases affecting the internal. Of diseases of the middle ear, 72 per cent are of suppurative character, often with inflammation or abscess, and 28 per cent non-suppurative, or rather catarrhal in character. Of diseases of the internal ear, 89 per cent are affections of the nerve, and 10 per cent of the labyrinth. It is to be noted that when the affection is of the internal ear, the result is usually total deafness. ”

“ The condition in question is word-deafness, and the disease is auditory aphasia. The latest statistical survey of the subject is that by Dr. Allen Starr. [39] In the seven cases of pure word-deafness which he has collected, cases in which the patient could read, talk, and write, but not understand what was said to him, the lesion was limited to the first and second temporal convolutions in their posterior two thirds. The lesion (in right-handed, i.e. left-brained, persons) is always on the left side, like the lesion in motor aphasia. ”

“ The most common disorder to which these organs are liable, is Deafness. Having already treated of that malady, we cannot avoid animadverting on the impropriety of employing the common ear-trumpets, which, though they may afford temporary aid, ultimately destroy that useful sense. ”

“ A common form of deafness is the result of hardening of the connections between the ear bones, so that the chain no longer follows well the vibrations of the drum. This usually begins to come on during the twenties or thirties, and causes almost complete deafness by the age of fifty. ”

“ Another condition to which I would call your attention is the incipient development of deafness in children. Where the capacity of hearing is quickly lowered from the normal to fifty per cent, it is so striking that the patient is much distressed and even confused. But when this change takes place insidiously from day to day, it is frequently not observed by either the patient or those around him until it has greatly advanced. ”

“ The crashing noise, combined with the air current, strikes one so stinging a blow when the first “whip” comes, that he feels as though he had been boxed by the hand of an unscen giant, and, unless the ears are protected by special ear mufflers, total deafness will result. ”

“ From our discussion, however, we have found that in most of the marriages of the deaf we have but small reason for disquiet. If deafness in the parent is really adventitious, there is little possibility of its passing on to the offspring. When [56] the deafness in the parent is itself congenital, the situation becomes more serious. If in such case there is no added risk from the existence of deaf relatives, the likelihood of transmitting deafness need not always be a matter of deep concern, though the hazard is materially larger than for adventitious deafness. ”

“ When deafness is present in infancy and childhood, it is accompanied with dumbness, or imperfect articulation, in consequence of the impossibility of conveying a knowledge of the sounds necessary for the exercise of the imitative faculty of speech. Deafness frequently arises from some imperfection or obstruction of the passage leading to the membrane of the tympanum or drum of the ear. In some cases this passage is totally closed by a membrane, or some malformation of the tube, which may frequently be removed by a surgical operation. ”

“ In all cases of congenital deafness it will be found that there exists some disorganization of the organ of hearing itself, some obstruc tion in the internal ear or compression of the auditory nerve, whereby the vibrations of the ear are prevented from pro ducing the required effect upon the internal parts of the ear, or from being communicated to the brain. ”

“ The marriage of deaf people is inadvisable where there has been deafness in the family in former generations, but the same warning applies to all the other members of that family, for the hearing members are as likely to transmit the defect of which deafness is a symptom as the deaf members are. ”

“ Those born deaf are precisely the ones that show plainly how necessary hearing is for the acquirement of perfectly articulate speech. One who is deaf from birth does not even learn to speak half a dozen sounds correctly without assistance, and the loss of speech that regularly follows deafness coming on in children who have already learned to speak, shows how inseparably the learning and the development of perfect articulation are bound up with the hearing. Even the deafness that comes on in maturer years injures essentially the agreeable tone, often also the intelligibility, of the utterance. ”

“ Detection of slight deafness may lead to the discovery of serious defects of nose or throat. Inflammation from cold or catarrh may cause deafness, which if neglected may permanently injure the ear. Often deafness is due to an accumulation of wax. A running ear should receive immediate attention, as it is an indication of inflammation which may imperil the integrity of the eardrum, and, if neglected, may eat its way through the thin partition between the ear and the brain and cause death. ”

“ In general, in respect to the influences of heredity upon deafness, the main determinants seem to be found in the existence in the parties, whether hearing or deaf, of deaf relatives, and, to a less extent, in the existence in parties who are deaf of congenital deafness. ”

“ It should never be assumed that deafness is incurable. Stupidity, inattention, and slowness to grasp a situation accompany difficulty of hearing and should cause the teacher to examine the ears. No ear trouble is negligible. ”

“ When unilateral deafness is really present the patient will only repeat what has been spoken in the healthy ear, while when there is simulation he becomes confused, and will repeat the words spoken into the seemingly deaf ear also. ”

“ Deafness is a frequent symptom in those inflammatory or sensitive fevers with debility, which are generally called putrid; it attends the general stupor in those fevers, and is rather esteemed a salutary sign, as during this stupor there is less expenditure of sensorial power. ”

“ It is thought that different cells respond to tones of different pitch, but exactly how this is accomplished is not known.
Deafness may result from failure of the sensitive inner ear to respond, or from poor transmission of vibrations across the middle ear by the chain of bones, or by interference with the freedom of action of the eardrum, or by preventing the air waves from striking upon the drum. Injury to the inner ear is rare, because of its secure position within the bone. ”

“ The organ of hearing is injured at its peripheral extremity, or else the acusticus in its course; then occurs difficulty of hearing or deafness. What is spoken is not correctly heard or not heard at all: the utterance is correct only in case the lesion happened late. If it is [Page 37] inborn, then this lack of speech, alalia, is called deaf-mutism, although the so-called deaf and dumb are not in reality dumb, but only deaf. If words spoken are incorrectly heard on account of acquired defects of the peripheral ear, the patient mis-hears, and the abnormal condition is called paracusis. ”

“ If the hearing is properly tested just as soon as the ringing in the ears has become more or less constant, some degree of deafness will be detected. As the case progresses, even before all the so-called superfluous hearing has been destroyed, the patient will realize that he is becoming deaf. For this condition there is nothing to be done by the patient himself. ”

“ From this it follows that if the sense of hearing be not lost till the child has learnt to speak fluently, the ability to speak is unaffected by the calamity of deafness, except that after many years the voice is likely to become high-pitched, or too guttural, or peculiar in some other respect, owing to the absence of the control usually exercised by the ear. ”

“ They give trouble from the mechanical impediment they present to swallowing and clear articulation, and when very large they cause the breathing to be more or less noisy at all times, but especially during sleep, while again they may give rise to a measure of deafness. ”

“ Sometimes water that gets in this way causes inflammation and cold, which hurt the sense of hearing. No one should ever strike another on the ear, even in play. It is likely to cause deafness. What is called the drum of the ear is a very delicate membrane which receives the sound. ”