312 On the late efforts in France aud other parts of Europe 



of hearing, and thus becoming perceptible ; or of the renewal of 

 the air in the cavity of the tympanum, which, in consequence of 

 the obstruction of the Eustachian tube, had undergone certain physical 

 charfges, of a kind to injure the transmission of sound. The two 

 cases, then, in which it would seem to be useful, are when the mem- 

 brane of the tympanum bass acquired an unnatural thickness, and 

 when the interior aperture of the ear has ceased to be permeable. 



The utility of this operation was originally suggested by Riolan, 

 and subsequently by the celebrated Cheselden; but M. Eli, a Paris 

 surgeon, is supposed to be the first who actually performed it. Eh, 

 however, died young, and his experiment and even his name were 

 nearly forgotten, when Sir Astley Cooper, in the year 1800, again 

 revived the practice, and performed the operation on a number of 

 deaf persons. His success for a time appeared so promising, that his 

 reputation was at once extended, and the perforation of the tympa- 

 num, in the mode which he pointed out,* was immediately practiced 

 in France and Germany. But its very popularity finally proved 

 its ruin ; for it was soon discovered, from the numerous cases in 

 which the operation was performed, without producing any favora- 

 ble result, that little reliance could be placed upon it, as a means 

 of cure. 



The same operation was also performed a number of times by 

 Hymly, a German physician, but with no better success. Instead 

 of the simple trocar of Cooper, he employed a very sharp instru- 

 ment in the form of a punch, the object of which was not only to 

 perforate the tympanum, but to remove a portion of the membrane. 

 His utmost efforts, however, could not prevent the aperture from 

 closing, and becoming healed even more rapidly than that made by 

 the trocar. On one individual, he performed the operation four 

 times, without being able to preserve the opening. He hence in- 

 ferred that if ever the operation is successful in restoring the deaf to 

 hearing, the cure is always temporary. 



The idea, however, of restoring the sense of hearing to the deaf 

 and dumb by means of perforating the tympanum, was not yet aban- 

 doned. Cooper and Hymly had indeed met with little success, but 

 it was hoped that some modification or improvement of the instru- 

 ments they employed, would be productive of more fortunate re- 

 sults. In place, therefore, of the trocar of Cooper, a similar instru- 



* Phil. Trans, of the Royal Soc. of London, for the year 1801. 



