436 



DISEASES OF THE EAR 



slightly alkaline, can also be used — the two former, however, are to be 

 preferred. "When the condition is chronic a syringe must be used to get 

 into the deep parts of the ear and the best for this purpose is one made 

 entirely of soft rubber with a long flexible point that can be pushed into 

 the meatus without any great danger of injuring the canal; the flexible 

 point adapts itself to the turns of the external ear canal, and by using 

 applications of warm water injected into the meatus the latter can be 

 thoroughly cleansed of accumulated cerumen, crusts, etc. The canal is 

 then dried with absorbent cotton introduced into the ear on the end of a 

 small pair of forceps. In some chronic cases great benefit is to be had 

 from injecting peroxide of hydrogen into the ear, as it cleans it out thor- 



FiG. 157. — Ear swab and mode of using it. 



oughly, but under no circumstances must this be repeated frequently as 

 the peroxide solution, while it has great cleansing properties, if repeated 

 frequently, attacks the normal structure of the ear and frequently the 

 writer has had brought to him cases where the whole inside of the ear and 

 concha was a mass of granulations, in what was originally a very mild 

 case, caused by the action of the peroxide solution. 



Syringings with water and fluids of any kind must not be used for 

 any length of time, as they are apt to carry the debris of the condition, 

 such as wax, pus, mucus, scab, etc., down into the middle ear. On the 

 other hand, it is well to clean out the ear thoroughly once or twice with 

 a syringe with a flexible point. As the meatus is elongated, narrow, and 

 slightly curved, there is not much clanger of injuring the tympanic 

 membrane. In very slight affections of this character, wdiich may be 

 recognized by a slight redness of the membrane, itching, and the presence 



