go SURGICAL APPLIED ANATOMY. [Chap. vi. 



however, straight in children, and remains so up to 

 the seventh year. In adults the septum deviates in 

 seventy-six per cent, of all persons. The deviation 

 may follow an injury. It has been pointed out that 

 a deviation of the septum may seriously interfere with 

 the singing voice. The nose also is seldom quite 

 straight, and French authors ascribe this to some de- 

 viation of the septum, often dependent upon the prac- 

 tice of always blowing the nose with the same hand. 

 If the deviation of the septum bo considerable, it may 

 more or less block one nostril, and, until the opposite 

 nostril is examined, be mistaken for a septal tumour 

 encroaching upon the cavity. The flattened nose in 

 acquired syphilis is usually due to destruction of the 

 septum, and more or less implication of the adjacent 

 bones. Workmen exposed to the vapour of bichromate 

 of potash are liable to a peculiar perforation of the 

 septum known as " bichromate disease." 



Outer wall. The inferior turbinated bone may 

 interfere with the introduction of a Eustachian catheter 

 if the curve of the instrument be too great. The 

 anterior end of the bone is about f of an inch behind 

 the orifice of the nostril. The opening of the nasal 

 duct is about one inch behind the orifice of the nostril, 

 and about |- of an inch above the nasal floor. This 

 opening is usually round and wide. It may, however, 

 be reduced to a slit-like orifice, or even to a minute 

 sinus. The height of the inferior meatus is about f of 

 an inch. The superior meatus is a very short and 

 narrow fissure, and into its upper and fore part open 

 the posterior ethinoidal cells. The middle meatus opens 

 widely in front upon a part of the outer wall called 

 the atrium, and unless care be taken to keep the 

 point of any instrument well towards the floor of the 

 fossa, it is easier to pass the instrument into the 

 middle than into the inferior meatus. Upon the wall 

 of the middle meatus is a deep gutter which runs 



