THE HYGIENE OF THE EAR. 143 



reflect, again, that the passage of the ear is closed by a delicate mem- 

 brane to show the reason for this rule. When no severe pain follows, 

 no alarm need be felt. It is important that the substance should be 

 removed as speedily as is quite safe, but there need never be impa- 

 tience ; nor should disappointment be felt if syringing needs to be 

 repeated on many days before it effects its end. It will almost in- 

 variably succeed at last in the hands of a medical man, and is most 

 effective if the ear is turned downward and syringed from below. 



Now and then an insect gets into the ear and causes great pain ; 

 the way to get rid of it is to pour oil into the ear. This suffocates the 

 insect. 



There is another danger arising from boyish sports. Snowballs 

 sometimes strike the ear, and the snow remaining in it sets up inflam- 

 mation. This danger is increased by a practice which should be inad- 

 missible, of mixing small stones with the snow, which thus effect a 

 lodgment in the ear. 



Among the causes of injury to the ear must unfortunately be 

 reckoned bathing. Not that this most healthful and important pleas- 

 ure need, therefore, be in the least discouraged ; but it should be wisely 

 regulated. Staying too long in the water certainly tends to produce 

 deafness as well as other evils ; and it is a practice against which 

 young persons of both sexes should be carefully on their guard. But, 

 independently of this, swimming and floating are attended with a cer- 

 tain danger from the difficulty of preventing the entrance of water 

 into the ear in those positions. Now, no cold fluid should ever enter 

 the ear ; cold water is always more or less irritating, and, if used for 

 syringing, rapidly produces extreme giddiness. In the case of warm 

 water its entrance into the ear is less objectionable, but even this is 

 not free from disadvantage. Often the water lodges in the ears and 

 produces an uncomfortable sensation till it is removed : this should al- 

 ways be taken as a sign of danger. That the risk to hearing from 

 unwise bathing is not a fancy, is proved by the fact, well known to 

 lovers of dogs, that those animals, if in the habit of jumping or being 

 thrown into the water, so that their heads are covered, frequently be- 

 come deaf. A knowledge of the danger is a sufficient guard. To be 

 safe it is only necessary to keep the water from entering the ear. If 

 this cannot be accomplished otherwise, the head may be covered. It 

 should be added, however, that wet hair, whether from bathing or 

 washing, may be a cause of deafness, if it be suffered to dry by itself. 

 Whenever wetted, the hair should be wiped till it is fairly dry. Nor 

 ought the practice of moistening the hair with water, to make it curl, to 

 pass without remonstrance. To leave wet hair about the ears is to run 

 great risk of injuring them. In the washing of children, too, care 

 should be taken that all the little folds of the outer ear are carefully 

 and gently dried with a soft towel. 



But I come now to what is probably the most frequent way in which 



