St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-10-12
Do Telephones Hurt the Hear.
Ing!

Several physicians of Springfield,
saws the Republican, have begun to
speculate upon the influence of the use
of the telephone upon the ear and the
sense of hearing. The subject is de
cidedly novel, not us yet being treated
in medical journals. Several cases
have come up wherein the ear of the
patient is diseased from varying causes,
and it is found that using the telephone
aggravates the trouble. Where int1am-
nation has set in, the ear is rendered
useless, nature providing that any
muscle when inflamed shall cease to
act. 1t is obvious i'll such cases that
the telephone may simply prolOng and
increase the Inflammation, thereby in
directly damaging the hearing. The
old case, cited i'll SO many doctors
books of the boiler-makers who are
made deaf by their own pounding, can
now he put i'll new shape, for even Il
sound ear might easily be ruined by
constantly receiving the veXatious
cracking and boiling of the telephone.
This eXegesis may he technically
phrased as nervous exhaustion from a
continuous shock. Furthermore, the
analogy between the mechanism of the
eve and that of the ear may be cited to
show that the straining of the ear to
catch the faint or indistinct words of
the telephone may damage the hearing,
as straining the eye impairs vision.
But most of the evidence gathered
to support these theories tends to com
bat them. Thus it appears that many
people who have telephones in their
houses or places of business, and Use
them frequently, find their hearing
bettered. The best testimony, how
ever. comes from the central office At
each switchboard sits an operator,
generally a girl, who from morning
till night haggles with unreasonable
subscribers and patiently goes through
the everlasting formula till her head
fairly rings with "hallon and "all
right" and ego ahead" She gets
small pay for her trying work, surely
not Il sufficient compensation for loss
of hearing. But her testimony is that
her hearing is constantly improving.
| When she began this work she blum
dered sadly; now the ear is drilled to
catch the faintest sound, and her sense
of hearing is remarkably acute. 1t
must be noticed that the regularity of
this schooling of the ear is largely re-
sponsible for the good result. If an
operator were to take a switch board
only one day in a week and do all the
work required on that day, the prac-
tice would doubtless be detrimental
because it would be exhaustive to both
the muscular and the nervous makeup
of the ear. The systematic use of the
telephone seems to develop the hear
ing above its normal acuteness, but
does not make it technically abnormal.
One benefit from using the telephone
is evident to both subscribers and
central-Office operators, that of culti-
waiting the attention, a process which
is reckOned as the third or intellectual
method of developing the sense OF
hearing. A good share of the difficulty
which people find in working tele-
phone comes not from any defect in
, the machine, nor from deficient hear
, ing, but from inability to fix the at
tentiOn on what is heard. This trouble
readily disappears by practice in listen