The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1873-07-03
Causes Of Injury to the Ear.

causes OF injury 10 the Ear.
Among the causes Of injury to the ear
must unfortunately be reckoned bathing
Not that this most healthful and import
ant pleasure need, therefore, be in the
least discouraged but it should be wisely
regulated. Staying too long in the wa
ter certainly tends to produce deafness as
well as other evils and it is practice
against which young persons Of both sexes
should be carefully op their guard. But,
ind ependently of this, swimming and
floating are attended with certain dam
ger from the difficulty of preventing the
| entrance of water into the ear in those
positions. Now, no cold fluid should ever
enter the ear cold water is always more
less irritating, and if used for Swinging,
rapidly produces extreme giddiness Iu
the case of warm water, its entrance into
the ear is less Objectionable, but even this
is not free from disad vantage. Often the
water lodges in the ears aud produces an
uncom Portable sensation till it is remov ed; !;
this should always be taken as a sign of
danger. That the risk to hearing from
unwise bathing is not 4 fancy, is proved
by the fact well known to. lovers of dogs,
that those animals, if in the habit of
jumping or teing thrown into the water,
so that their heads are covered, frequently
become deaf. A knowledge of the danger
is a sufficient guard. To be safe it is on
Iy necessary to keep the water from eu-
tering the ear. If this cannot be accom-
plished otherwise, the head may be GOV.
cred. 1t should be added, however, that
wet hair, whether from bathing or wash
ing, may be a cause of deafness, if it be
suffered to dry by itself. Whenever wet
ted, the hair should be wiped till it is
fairly dry. Nor ought the practice OF
moistcnng the hair with water, to make
it curl, to pass without remonstrance To
leave wet hair about the ears is to run
the risk Of injuring them. Iu the wash
ing of children, too, care should be taken
that all the folds of the outer ear are care.
fully and gently dried with soft towel
But L come now to what is probably the
most frequent way in which the ear is
impaired that is, by the attempt to clean
it, 1t ought to be understood that the
passage of the ear does not require clean
ing by us. Nature undertakes that task,
and, n the healthy state, ful6lls it per
fectly. Her means for cleansing the ear
is the wax. Perhaps the reader has new
er wondered what becomes of the ear
wax. | will tell him. 1t dries up into
thin fine scales, and these peel off, one by
one, from the surface of the passage, and
fall out perceptibly, leaving behind
them perfectly clean smooth surface -
La health the passage of the ear is never
dirt but if We attempt to clean it, we in
fallibly make it So Hereby strange
lack of Justice, as it would seem, which,
however, has, no doubt, deep
! Justice at the bottom-the best people,
those who love cleanliness, suffer most,
and good and careful nurses do mischief
negligent ones avoid. Washing the ear
out with soap and water is bad it keeps
the wax moist when it ought to become
dry and scaly, increases its quantity un-
duly, and makes it absorb the dust with
which the air always abounds. But the
most hurtful thing is introducing the cor
ner of the towel, screwed up, and twisting
it round. This does more harm to ears
than all other mistakes together. 1t drives
down the wax upon the membrane, much
more than it gets it out. Let any one
who doubts this make tube like the
passage. especially with the cGrses which
it possesses let him put a thin membrane
at one end, smear its inner surface with
substance like the ear wax, and ther
try to get it out so by towel But this
plan does much more mischief than mere
ly pressing down the wax. 1t irritate:
the passage, and makes it cast off small
fakes of skin, which dry up aud become
extremely hard and these also are presse,
down upon the membrane. Often it is no
only deafness which ensues, but pain anC
inflammation, aud then matter is formed
which the hard mass prevents from es
Gaping, and the membrane becomes DIS
eased and worse may follow The ca
should never be cleaned out with tn
screwed up corner of a towel. Washing
should extend only to the outer surface
as far as the finger can reach. IA
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