ANIMAL MECHANISM. 305 



RINGING OF THE EARS. 



A ringing noise in the ear is an indication of a dis- 

 eased state of the nerve ; generally, it arises from some 

 slight inflammation. The beating of adjacent arteries, 

 in consequence of local inflammation of the throat, may 

 excite the nerve, which being incapable of transmit- 

 ting any sensation but that of sound, the ringing is an 

 imperfect sen-ation. The eye, when the optic nerve is 

 encroached upon by inflammation of surrounding parts, 

 or the pressure of a growing tumor, transmits the sensa- 

 tion of light, though the individual be in total darkness; 

 affections of the brain itself may remotely excite a mor- 

 bid action in many or all the nerves of sense. Hence, 

 persons dying of acute inflammatory diseases, complain 

 of hearing loud and strange noises, although the apart- 

 ment is perfectly still. 



Perhaps the ear-ache, (ostalgia) is as difficult to ex- 

 plain as to remedy. Very many individuals are subject 

 to excruciating pain in the internal ear, on taking the 

 slightest cold or from exposing themselves to a humid 

 atmosphere ; and others seem to inherit the disease, 

 which no application can remove. A peculiar irritability 

 of the nerve that crosses the drum-head, (corda ti/mpani) 

 may be one cause, the vascular covering of which, 

 suffering from a chronic inflammation, compresses the 

 nerve and thus produces almost intolerable agony. De- 

 fending the external opening with cotton wool, or lint, 

 is a common and indeed, rational defence ; but the in- 

 troduction of oils, spirits and the like, is often attended 

 with pernicious consequences. Generally such cases 

 end in deafness. Nature, to save the rest of the machine 

 from becoming disordered, by its sympathy with the 

 diseased member, finally destroys it, as firemen demolish 



of those edifices. Mr Curtis, an aurist, in England, has recently 

 invented a chair, with certain pipes and tambours, that enables the 

 individual seated in it to hear, distinctly, a suppressed conversation, 

 which may be carried on in any part of the room. 

 VOL. I. NO. XII. 27 



