bibliology or critical review, I will now compress the history of our art, with few exceptions, into the labours of British aurists. The well-marked inflammatory diseases of parts of the auditory apparatus, such as the auricle, external tube, and tympanum, were generally treated, by all well-educated surgeons, as in the present day, by strict antiphlogistic means, the local abstraction of blood, purging, and counter-irritation; but here the judicious interference of art ceased; and it would have been well if all further meddling had been avoided; but laudanum was regarded as a panacea in all cases of ear-ache, no matter from what cause it may have arisen; and drops, oils, and liniments, some of them of the most caustic nature, were, without mercy and without discrimination, poured into the external meatus by those, who like the regicide of old— "Stole With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, First upon the list of British writers upon the acoustic apparatus and its diseases stands John Cunningham Saunders, the distinguished oculist, and the founder of the London Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye, on whose merits, as an original observer, a sound practical surgeon, and a critical anatomist, I need not expatiate. His work, "The Anatomy of the Human Ear, illustrated by a series of engravings of the natural size; with a Treatise on the Diseases of that Organ, the Causes of Deafness, and their proper Treatment," was published in 1806, and although, as I already said, he availed himself of the labours of Du Verney, still to Saunders we are indebted for the first special English work of any merit upon this subject, and to him the various charlatans that have ventured to set forward their ideas in print are indebted for the mine from which they drew the material of their various and voluminous publications. Saunders, as an aurist, has been unjustly dealt with: he wrote, not merely in accordance with, but beyond the knowledge of, his time, and Kramer not only criticises his work with too great severity, but denies it the place which, in a chronological point of view, it deserves. This may, however, be accounted for by Kramer's having quoted from, as perhaps he only had access to, the third edition, published in 1829, just nineteen years after Mr. Saunders's death. The practical portion of the work consisted of the history and treatment of the diseases of the meatus externus, and those of the tympanum, of the obstruction of the Eustachian tube, and of the diseases of the internal part of the ear, to which are added cases of incipient nervous deafness successfully treated. The plates are worthy of inspection, and were evidently drawn from recent dissections. Saunders possessed, in addition to his originality, honesty and general attainments in the science of anatomy and surgery, this great requisite for an aurist, that, having also applied himself to the study of diseases of the eye, he had thus acquired habits of minute observation and delicate manipulation, without which no man will ever attain to eminence in either art. Moreover, the analogy which exists between the diseases, as well as the anatomy and physiology of these two organs, enabled him to bring to the study of the ear the rational principles of medicine then established in the treatment of ocular affections. For six or eight years we hear nothing of aural surgery in Great Britain, and our space will not permit of our even enume rating the names of the different Continental writers for the first twenty years of the nineteenth century. Cooper's more extended and more lucrative line of practice caused him to relinquish aural surgery, this, and the untimely death of Saunders, seem to have cast a veil over this branch of knowledge in these kingdoms. In the years 1815 and 1817 we find two special works on aural medicine; of the first of these, “Dissertatio de Aure Humana et ejus Morbis," an inaugural essay, published by Mr. Ball at Edinburgh, there is little even to criticise; and the second was the earliest work of the since far-famed John Harrison Curtis. Let us read its high-sounding title: "A Treatise on the Physiology and Diseases of the Ear, containing a comparative view of its Structure, Functions, and of its various Diseases, arranged according to the Anatomy of the Organ, or as they affect the external, the intermediate, and the internal Ear." Let us draw from the writings of a foreigner the opinion that a man of honesty and prac tical experience formed of this and the author's subsequent works. Curtis," says the writer, "treats every discharge from the ear exclusively, and in a summary way, by means of astringents; obstructions of the Eustachian tube, with emetics and perforation of the membrana tympani; whilst, in spite of all the entreaties of Saissy, he has never once practised catheterism of the Eustachian tube on the living subject. He makes tinnitus the chief symptom of nervous deafness, which he treats with purgatives, especially calomel, as long as the strength of the patient holds out." "In all doubtful cases the chief attention is directed merely to ascertain whether the liquor Cotunnii be partially or totally deficient!! or whether hardened wax exist in the meatus." "In the otitis of children he sticks opium into the affected ear, &c., so that throughout all his writings nothing but the most crude empiricism is to be met with; and yet among his compatriots, as well as abroad, Curtis generally possesses the reputation of being a distinguished aurist." And one of the first English medical periodicals of the day thus expresses its admiration of the same person: "Mr. Curtis, in his Treatise on the Physiology and Pathology of the Ear, has appropriated the whole of Mr. Saunders' essay. The exact words, indeed, have, in some instances, been changed, but the plagiarism is too manifest to escape even the most inattentive reader. To this paraphrase of Mr. S.'s work, Mr. Curtis has added some things from other authors, and some histories of cases treated by himself (of course all most successfully), and has thus concocted a treatise which, with singular effrontery, he has put forth as entirely of his own composition, and as containing the results of his own practice. This work has now, for a period of about twenty years, been forced upon the attention of the public by the advertisements of successive editions; and it is a melancholy fact, that there should have been found editors of medical journals either so ignorant or so careless as to lavish commendation on such a production." Almost in a similar category may be classed the writings of Williams, surnamed the nostrum-monger; and also those of Stephenson and of Wright, "New Observations on the Diseases of the Eye and Ear," 1817. The latter followed something of the plan laid down by Curtis, of simply recomposing the words of his first work; for as to new ideas, there were none, nor old ones to add them to. In order to form either a new edition, or a new book, we find the changes rung to the following tunes for about ten or eleven years: "An Essay on the Human Ear, its Anatomical Structure, and Incidental Complaints," 1819; "The Aurist, or Medical Guide for the Deaf," 1825; "Plain Advice for all Classes of Deaf Persons, the Deaf and the Dumb, and those having Diseases of the Ear," 1826,-verily, this must have been a popular book; "Observations on the Effects of Mercury on the Organs of Hearing, and the improper use of it in cases of Nervous Deafness," 1827; "On the Varieties of Deafness and Diseases of the Ear, with proposed Methods of relieving them," 1829. To these was added, "The Present State of Aural Surgery," together with three or four others, all by the redoubted Mr. William Wright. With these productions may be classed those of Webster, Thornton, and Fletcher, works similar in substance and composition, although, perhaps, not so flagrant in plagiarism. Among the writers of that period, and with some even down to the present, it was usual to preface whatever they had to offer to public notice as a cure for deafness by a lengthened description of the structure and physiology of the ear, copied from some of the general or special works upon anatomy. Thus, when one of the persons just alluded to wished to advertise a new instrument, made to fit the back of the auricle, for the purpose of collecting sound, we find that there issued from the London press in 1836, "A new and familiar Treatise on the Structure of the Ear and on Deafness, by A. W. Webster, inventor of the Otaphone, &c. &c." Among the illustrations to that work we observe an ill-executed wood-cut, of a very ugly and misshapen auricle, but bearing the attractive inscription of "Mozart's Ear." On perusing the text, however, we discover that it was not the ear of the great musician, but that of his youngest son, "which resembled that of his father!" One specimen from the medical portion of the book will suffice: "The membrane of the tympanum, which I have before described as presenting the appearance of a large opal bead, was frequently reduced, both in size and colour, to the resemblance of a mustard seed, the burning substances which had been put within the ear having effected that change." But it was not alone among the instrument venders and itinerant aurists that ignorance and quackery were to be found. About eight years ago I was sent a book, bearing the following title, but without a date: "The Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment of Nervous Deafness, Inflammation of the Eye, and Indigestion, popularly treated by J. D. Hepworth, late Surgeon to the Leeds General Eye and Ear Infirmary." In the anatomical description he says, the membrana tympani is "of a dry and brittle tissue, without fibres or blood-vessels." Nervous deafness is ascribed to obstructions in the secretion of the fluid of the vestibule; and hardness of hearing, following measles or scarlet fever, to chronic inflammation of the membrane of, and deposits of lymph within, the semicircular canals! Surely foreigners might well criticise English writers on aural medicine when they read such statements as the foregoing. Somewhat of the same character is the work of Dr. Gardner on Deafness, consisting of 152 pages, entirely devoted to the anatomy of the ear, with half-a-page at the end explanatory of the contents of the second part, upon the Pathology and Treatment of Diseases of the Ear, but which we have not yet seen. This is the only book upon the subject which has issued from the Dublin press. It appeared in 1828.* There is one English writer whom we would rescue from the criticism which has been already applied to his predecessors. In 1823, Mr. Thomas Buchanan, an intelligent surgeon of Hull, published an engraved representation of the anatomy of the human ear, to which were added some surgical remarks on Eustachian catheterism, together with an account of the operation of punctur Its lengthy and attractive title runs thus: "A Treatise on Deafness; its Causes, Prevention, and Cure; the Physiology and Anatomy of the Ear; the Uses of the different parts for the modification and conveying of Sounds to the seat of Hearing; the different classes of Diseases incident to the different parts, and what class of Medicines are best calculated to restore the several parts to their proper functions; also, a representation of the cases out of the reach of human aid. The map of the internal ear will show the precise situation of the most important parts, to facilitate the study of its anatomy, and should be referred to in the perusal of this work. By T. Gardner, Esq., M. D., Aurist, and Professor of Physiology of the Ear. Dublin: Printed by J. M'Mullen, 55, Exchange-street, 1828." |