Method which is simple and may be quite effective in cases where the body is not wedged too tightly in the canal or has been surrounded by a ring of swelled tissue. Some gutta-percha is melted in an iron spoon, and with a fine probe of iron wire, having a small ring at its ex tremity, some of the liquid gutta-percha is taken up and passed into the auditory canal; the gutta-percha is applied to the foreign body and held against it until the latter is firmly adherent. The probe is then withdrawn, bringing away . the foreign body sticking fast to the gutta-percha bead. Guillaume (Union Med. du Nord-est, Dec., '93).
Foreign body forced into the drum cavity from the external ear, followed by rough extraction, great irritation, tetanus, and death. Schmiegelow f. Orenh., B. 59, May, '95).
Case of fatal meningitis, in a child of 5 years, induced by rough endeavors to extract a bean from the external ear. Voss (St. Petersburg med. Woch., June 10, '95).
Case in which the writer was obliged to detach the auricle and chisel away the posterior and superior wall of the bony canal in order to remove a bean which had been forced into the drum cavity of a child of 5. McBride (Med. Chron., Feb., '96).
If a living insect has entered the ear, a few drops of swept oil will smother it, and it may then be syringed out with warm water. If an inanimate substance has been placed in the ear, wringing with warm water will generally remove it if the ear has not been previously scratched by probes or forceps. If the latter has been done, the child should be etherized and the foreign body removed by an expert. There is no hurry de manded in such eases. The foreign sub stance had better be left in the ear in definitely than to apply rough measures for its removal. Death has occurred by unskillful efforts to remove a foreign body from the ear of a child. Not the foreign bodies in the ear, but the im proper treatment. is the cause of death in such cases. Burnett ("Amer. Year
book," p. 835, '96).
There is no reaction between the normal auditory canal and the foreign body placed in it; as such, the foreign substance is unattended with danger. Therefore, every hasty endeavor at re moval is not only unnecessary, but may be injurious. 1. In all cases in which no rough endeavors at removal are made, syringing with warm water is sufficient to remove the foreign body. 2. The general physician should never employ anything but the syringe to remove foreign bodies from the ear. 3. An in strumental removal should never be attempted by anyone but a specialist skilled in the use of ear-specula and the technique necessary in such cases. Hum mel (Munch. med. Woch., Apr. 27, '97).
Case of a man, aged 35 years, who twenty-five years ago had put a piece of slate pencil into his right ear, where it had since remained. He was very deaf, and both ears were packed with ceru men. The ear was syringed and the cerumen softened with oil. The next day, when the ear was being syringed, a piece of slate pencil, three-quarters of an inch long, came out. A. II. Benson (Brit. Med. Jour., Nov. 3, 1900).
Otomycosis or the growth of asper gillus or other molds in the auditory canal is a rare affection, practically an eczematous inflammation with this in fection as an accidental sequence and persisting irritant. Such organisms can not flourish in a dry ear. It should be well cleansed and rigorously mopped with hydrogen dioxide, then dried with all thoroughness, and dusted with boric acid. Instillation of borated alcohol may precede this last, if it does not irritate too much. In the very rare instances when a few repetitions of this procedure fails of complete success, some of the many other commended drugs may be tried. As the growth may have pene trated deeply into the epithelium, no single treatment can be trusted to have destroyed every hypha and spore; and a non-rnycotic eczema may remain to be