1917] The Organs of Hearing in Relation to War. 91 



WEEKLY EYEXIXa MEETING, 



Friday, April 27, 1917. 



Sir James Crichtox-Browxe, J.P. M.D. LL.D. F.R.S., 

 Treasurer and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



DuxDAS Grant, M.D. M.A. F.E.C.S. M.R.I. 



The Organs of Hearing in Relation to War. 



"While even a slio-ht duhiess of hearins; has an undoubted disturbinof 

 effect in the simpler evolutions of a volunteer, the necessity for a 

 reasonably good amount of hearing -power by the soldier under train- 

 ing or in the field is unquestionable. Hearing for the whispered 

 voice at fifteen feet with either ear may be accepted as a minimum 

 standard. Under a voluntary system it has apparently been neces- 

 sary to admit men whose hearing-power was considerably below this, 

 but where universal service affords a supply of men greater than is 

 required such a defect would justify refusal. 



Whether deafness of one ear renders a man unfit for service is a 

 moot point, as one good ear is perhaps better than two poor ones. 

 [The lecturer cited two cases of men with one-sided deafness who had 

 proved very useful soldiers during the earlier years of the war. One 

 had become a sergeant in a Highland regiment, the other was a 

 driver in the Field Artillery. In neither was the one-sided deafness 

 discovered until the other ear was temporarily deafened by shell- 

 concussion.] A man with only one hearing-ear is not well fitted for 

 the infantry, but may be quite useful in the artillery, transport or 

 medical service. 



There is no doubt that our pension list will be enlarged by the 

 inclusion of men who were passed into the army while already dull of 

 hearing, or affected with diseases of the ear, and whose dulness or 

 disease has been aggravated by military service. The advisability of 

 being able to pick and choose is an argument for the institution of a 

 reasonable measure of universal liability to military service. 



In the Air Service the supply has been greater than the demand, 

 and the quality of the highest. Rigid tests of the hearing, vision 

 and other functions are applied before candidates are admitted, and 

 the brilliant results obtained have surpassed all expectation. 



To explain the various modes in which the organs of hearing 

 may suffer in warfare, their structure and functions were shortly con- 

 sidered in order, viz. the auditory cortical centres on the surface 

 of the brain, the nerve tracts in the brain leading from the internal 



