Destruction of the Membrana Tympani. 153 



flammation and suppuration hi the left ear, which continued dis- 

 charging matter for several weeks: in the space of about twelve 

 months after the first attack, symptoms of a similar kind took 

 place in the right ear, from which also matter issued for a con- 

 siderable time. The discharge in each instance was thin, and 

 extremely offensive to the smell ; and, in the matter, bones or 

 pieces of bones were observable. The immediate consequence 

 of these attacks was a total deafness, which continued for three 

 months ; the hearing then began to return, and, in about ten< 

 months from the last attack, was restored to the state in which, 

 it at present remains. 



Having thus described the disease and its symptoms, he gave 

 me the following satisfactory proof of each membrana tympani 

 being imperfect. Having filled his mouth with air, he closed the 

 nostrils, and contracted his cheeks : the air,, thus compressed* 

 was heard to rush through the meatus auditorius, with a whistling 

 noise, and the hair hanging from the temples became agitated 

 by the current of air which issued from the ear. To determine 

 this with greater precision, I called for a lighted candle, which 

 was applied in turn to each ear, and the flame was agitated in a 

 similar manner. Struck with the novelty of these phaenomena, 1 

 wished to have many witnesses of them, and therefore requested 

 him, at the conclusion of the lecture upon the organ of hearing, 

 to exhibit them to his fellow students, with which request he 

 was so obliging as to comply. 



It was evident from these experiments, that the membrana 

 tympani of each ear was incomplete, and that the air issued 

 from the mouth, by the Eustachian tube, through an opening in 

 that membrane, and escaped by the external meatus. 



To determine the degree in which the membrana tympani 

 mdccc X 



