64 SURGICAL APPLIED ANATOMY. [Chap. v. 



little branch from the pneurno - gastric, has been 

 credited with a good deal in connection with the 

 nerve relations of the ear. After a heavy dinner, 

 when the rose-water comes round, it is common to see 

 the more experienced of the diners touch the lower 

 part of the back of the ear with the moistened 

 serviette. This is said to be very refreshing, and is 

 supposed to prove to be an unconscious stimulation of 

 Arnold's nerve, a nerve whose main trunk goes to 

 the stomach. Hence, this little branch has been 

 facetiously termed "the alderman's nerve." 



Ear coughing, car sneezing 1 , ear yawning* 

 It is not uncommon to have a troublesome dry 

 cough associated with some mischief in the meatus. 

 Sometimes the mere introduction of a speculum will 

 make the patient cough. A case is reported, where 

 a troublesome cough persisted for eighteen months, 

 and at once ceased on the removal of a plug of wax 

 from the ear. In such cases, the irritation is pro- 

 bably conveyed to the trunk of the vagus by Arnold's 

 nerve, and is then referred to the respiratory tracts 

 which are so extensively supplied by that trunk. By 

 means of this little branch the ear is brought into 

 very direct connection with the great nerve of the 

 lung. Dr. Woakes has carefully investigated the 

 matter of ear-sneezing, & propos of a case where 

 troublesome sneezing was set up by a plug of wax in 

 the meatus. He considers that the irritation in this 

 case also is conveyed to the respiratory organs by 

 Arnold's nerve. The relation of this small nerve to 

 the nerve of the stomach is illustrated by a case 

 cited by Arnold, where severe chronic vomiting was 

 at once cured by extracting from each ear of a child 

 a bean that had been introduced in play. 



In the repeated yawning that is sometimes set up 

 by ear ailments, the irritation is no doubt conveyed 

 from the meatus by the auriculo- temporal nerve. 



