i 4 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the ear is impaired : that is, by the attempt to clean it. It ought to 

 be understood that the passage of the ear does not require cleaning 

 by us. Nature undertakes that task, and, in the healthy state, fulfils it 

 perfectly. Her means for cleansing the ear is the wax. Perhaps the 

 reader has never wondered what becomes of the ear-wax. I will tell 

 him. It dries up into thin fine scales, and these peel off, one by one, 

 from the surface of the passage, and fall out imperceptibly, leaving 

 behind them a perfectly clean, smooth surface. In health the passage 

 of the ear is never dirty ; but, if we attempt to clean it, we infallibly 

 make it so. Here by a strange lack of justice, as it would seem, 

 which, however, has no doubt a deep justice at the bottom the best 

 people, those who love cleanliness, suffer most, and good and careful 

 nurses do a mischief negligent ones avoid. "Washing the ear out with 

 soap and water is bad ; it keeps the wax moist when it ought to be- 

 come dry and scaly, increases its quantity unduly, and makes it absorb 

 the dust with which the air always abounds. But the most hurtful 

 thing is introducing the corner of the towel, screwed up, and twisting 

 it round. This does more harm to ears than all other mistakes together. 

 It drives down the wax upon the membrane, much more than it gets it 

 out. Let any one who doubts this make a tube like the passage, 

 especially with the curves which it possesses ; let him put a thin mem- 

 brane at one end, smear its inner surface with a substance like the ear- 

 wax, and then try to get it out so by a towel ! But this plan does 

 much more mischief than merely pressing down the wax. It irritates 

 the passage, and makes it cast off small flakes of skin, which dry up, 

 and become extremely hard, and these also are pressed down upon the 

 membrane. Often it is not only deafness which ensues, but pain and 

 inflammation, and then matter is formed which the hard mass prevents 

 from escaping, and the membrane becomes diseased, and worse may 

 follow. The ear should never be cleaned out with the screwed-up corner 

 of a towel. Washing should extend only to the outer surface, as far 

 as the finger can reach. 



Ear-pjlcks, again, are bad. If there is any desire to use them, it 

 shows that the ear is unhealthy ; and it wants soothing, not picking. 

 And there is another danger from introducing any solid thing into the 

 ear. The hand may^get a push, and it may go too far. Many is the 

 membrane that has thus been broken by a bodkin. Sportsmen some- 

 times have their membrane pierced by turning suddenly while getting 

 through a hedge. And it even happens that a boy at school may put 

 a pen close to another's ear, in play, and call to him to make him turn 

 his head ; and the pen pierces the membrane. Very loud sounds may 

 cause deafness, too. Artillerymen, and also eager sportsmen, and very 

 zealous volunteers, incur a danger from this cause. It is well to stop 

 the ears when exposed to loud sounds, if possible ; also to avoid bel- 

 fries when the bells are about to ring. A man who was once shut up 

 in one became stone-deaf before the peal was done. The sound of guns 



