398 INFLAMMATIONS. 



to lower the system by purgatives (11), (12), (15), or (16), with 

 low diet, including no animal food. As soon as this has produced 

 a decided effect, the nitrate of silver wash (22), the ointment (58«), 

 melted, or the sulphate of zinc (20), should be dropped into the 

 ear-passage, changing the one for tlie other every second or third 

 day. At the same time the sores on the edges of the ears trrj be 

 touched with bluestone daily, which will dry them up. In slight 

 cases, this treatment will suffice for a cure, if carried on for three 

 weeks or a month ; but, in long-standing attacks, a seton must be 

 put into the back of the neck, and this seldom fails to afford relief. 

 If the inflammation in the external ear has been so great as to 

 produce abscesses, they must be slit open with the knife to the 

 very lowest point, as wherever matter is confined in a pouch there 

 can be no tendency to heal. Whenever anything is to be done to 

 the ear the doo* must be muzzled, as the head cannot otherwise be 

 held sufficiently still, and in pouring in the lotion, the head must 

 be placed on a table, and held there steadily for some minutes, so 

 that the fluid may have time to penetrate the whole canal. 



Deafness may arise from canker, or from rheumatic or other 

 inflammation of the internal ear ; but, as no treatment is likely to 

 be beneficial, there is no use in enlarging on the subject. The 

 only remedy at all to be relied on in recent cases is the seton in 

 the back of the neck. 



