260 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Acadennj. 



further on. Besides the unpleasant sensation of " dead numbness," as 

 the patient called it, which affected the external ear, down through 

 the meatus, there was marked loss of auditory power. In order that 

 he should hear the tick of a watch it was necessary that it should 

 be applied close to the ear. This defect came on simultaneously with 

 the angesthesia of the inferior maxillary nerve, and passed away as the 

 latter began to improve. The progress was different from that I ob- 

 tained where the auditory nerve was itself affected. It seems impos- 

 sible, therefore, not to connect these two facts in relation as cause 

 and effect ; the paralysis of the inferior division of the trigeminal nerve 

 inducing a degree of deafness corroborates the opinion of M. Robin, 

 who states that the motor branch, derived from it, simply passes 

 through the otic ganglion to supply the internal muscle of the 

 malleus. 



This connexion being made clear, I pass to the second case. In 

 this instance, a young patient came to me, complaining in almost 

 the same terms, of deafness and unpleasant numbness in the right ear. 

 It was necessary that the watch should be quite close to his ear to 

 enable him to hear it ticking. Sensation was, however, intact over 

 the face. On examining the throat I at once perceived a relaxation 

 of the palatine muscles on the same side ; and further tests showed 

 that I had before me a strictly localised paralysis, affecting the nerve- 

 branches which proceeded from the otic ganglion to the tympanum, 

 on the one hand, and to the palate on the other. The spheno-palatine 

 nerves could be excluded, for the region supplied by their anterior 

 branches (described as sensory) was not affected by the paralysis, and 

 there seems no probability (nor does it, indeed, matter to the question) 

 that the posterior muscular branches were affected. 



This localised paralysis afforded an opportunity of studying what 

 changes, if any, resulted in the palatine region supplied by the 

 nerves affected. As one-half only of the soft palate was involved, 

 an immediate comparison could be made, in the same individual, 

 between the results of tests applied on both sides. 



It was obvious, in the first place, that motor filaments had been 

 supplied, and were paralysed : but is the statement accurate that the 

 nerve-supply is purely motor ? That, I may say, seems at the outset 

 a somewhat gratuitous assertion, considering the character of the otic 

 ganglion. The pathological facts observed in the palatine region in 

 consequence of this localised paralysis were the following : — 



1°. Motor paralysis of certain muscles supervened ; 



2°. There was loss of heat-sense — the patient not being able to 

 detect the heat of a warm gargle on the affected side ; 



3°. There was marked loss of the sense of touch ; 



4°. Sense of pain was very greatly diminished ; 



5°. Finally, as regards the sense of taste, the existence of which 

 in the soft palate some have contested, I found that it unquestionably 

 was present on the healthy side, and that it was almost, if not quite, 

 abolished in the paralysed half of the palate. AVhen test-fluids, 



