316 On the late efforts in France and other parts of Europe 



tympanum through the membrane, with the view of expelling the 

 concretions through the Eustachian tube* By a fortunate chance, 

 the first deaf-mute, upon whom he undertook to perform the exper- 

 iment, was precisely of that small number, who owe their defect to 

 the cause in question. The patient was a child, twelve years of 

 age, and deaf from birth, named Christian Dietz. His restoration 

 to hearing was almost complete, and he would probably have re- 

 covered the use of speech, had his life been continued. He was 

 attacked, however, with a disease which baffled medical skill, and 

 occasioned his death a few months after the operation.* M. ltard 

 was induced by the encouraging result of this experiment, to per- 

 form the same operation on twelve other deaf-mutes, but its inutil- 

 ity from these cases, became so evident, that he abandoned it in 

 despair.f 



II. Injection of the Eustachian tube. — The attention of physi- 

 cians was next directed to the injection of the Eustachian tube. The 



* 



end to be attained was the same as before — the free admission of air 

 into the cavity of the tympanum. The possibility of this operation 

 was first suggested by Guyot, a post master at Versailles, who was 

 afflicted for many years with deafness caused by mucus which ob- 

 structed the tube. He performed the operation on himself, and in 

 1724 presented the instrument he had employed to the Royal Acad- 

 emy of Sciences. " The most important part of this instrument," 

 say the committee, U is a curved tube, which is passed deep into the 

 mouth, behind and above the palate, so as to be applied to the ex- 

 tremity of the canal to be injected. It will serve at least to wash 

 the mouth of the Eustachian tube, and will thus, perhaps, in cer- 

 tain cases, be useful. "J This language sufficiently indicates the dis- 

 trust with which the committee regarded the alledged injection. 

 The faults of the operation were in fact so prominent, and the im- 

 possibility of performing a perfect injection through the mouth was 

 so apparent, that it was abandoned for nearly twenty years. The 

 idea however had once been suggested, and it required only that 

 some improvement should be proposed again to bring it into notice. 

 This was done by Cleland, an English surgeon. He recommended 



* A minute and interesting report of this case will be found in Itard's Traite 

 des maladies de V Oreille et de I' Audition: Tome ii, p. 464, et seq. 

 t Revue midicale Frangaise et Etrangtre, et Journal de Clinique } etc., AvriJ, 



1827, p. 34. 



t Hist. deVAcad. Royale des Sciences, aniUe 1724. p. 37. 



