The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-26
War Deafness.

War Deafness.
Lieutenant W. II. Harrison. OF the
Oregon. has had his hearing temporar-
lily injured IL not permanently destroy
ed, and is now at home invalided. This
resulted from the reverberation of the
guns at the battle of Santiago. Par
tial loss of hearing or even incurable
deafness OF a member of the crew is
not infrequently the result of heavy
cannonading on a modern battleship.
This is not to be wondered at when we
remember the delicate anatomy Of the
ear. The ear consists OF the outer
lobe, as we all knew 1t. from which
leads a somewhat curved canal about
one and quarter inches long, which
ends in a delicate membrane, the
tympanic membrane, which protects
the tymphanic cavity, the drum of the
ear, while this small cavity is in turn
kept ventilated by a narrow tube, the
eustachan duct, the open end Of which
is placed in the throat. Any violent
shock or concussion is likely to rupture
this tymphanic membrane and cause
irreparable injury. A violent blow on
the ear deprived Thomas Edison of his
hearing. 1t is hard to estimate what
the world has lost by this physical de-
privation of the great inventor. 1t
seems almost incredible that a man
almost stone deaf could be the origin
ator of the phonograph, the most Won
derful of all applications of electric
afflux of sound waves.
There was not a man probably in the
engagements at Santiago or Manila
who has escaped more or less injury
to his hearing as a consequence OF
the rapid detonations of the guns in
action. In most cases this will be
temporary, but in many instances it is
likely to remain permanent. Deaf
ness. if slight or temporary is, 1t
is true, more of an inconvenience
than an affiction. No man or
woman travelling the downward path
of life wholly escapes it. 1t is as
natural a corollary to this age
as gray hairs; it is an indication of
the decline of the recuperative powers
of the nervous system and constitu-
tion. The increasing deafness of the
late Mr.. Gladtone was the most notice.
able sign of the decline of his marvel
Gus physical powers, and so it is with
almost all men who carry robust
health to extreme old age. Certain oc-
cupations predispose to deafness. Boil
ermakers, for instance, are notorious
for this deafness, and so on with men
engaged in occupations in which con-
tinuous danger accompanies the pros
ecution of their work.
While deafness is the natural ac-
compartment of physical debility and
senile decay it prevails among the
young to a more prevalent degree than
is commonly supposed, and is in
most instances, preventible. Had
Lieutenant Harrison stuffed his ears
with a mixture of soft clay and cot
ton fibre, which effectively prevents the
clay from hardening, he might have
preserved his hearing intact. Cotton
wadding is not dense enough to pre-
vent the sudden contraction of the air
quent rupture or total destruction. No
artillery battery should go into action
without the gunners first adopting the
simple and effective precaution of clay
ear plugs. They cost little or moth
ing and are as portable as canned
goods. Bathers will find it an effective
remedy against a very disagreeable
and sometimes dangerous effect of
a sudden plunge in the water. In the
good old days when the rod was the
sole symbol of authority in the school,
many a poor boy and girl lived to
curse the brutality or thoughtlessness
of the blow on the ear from the teach
er which deprived them of hearing for
life or superinduced earache, the most
agonizing of all contracted diseases.
Specialists in ear troubles are almost
as numerous as specialists in optics
or nervous diseases, and they do not
seem to lack a large measure of pat
ronage. Yet nature has admirably
protected the delicate organism of the
ear from untoward accident. In all
these matters that concern the preser-
walton of nerves, sight, or hearing we
are yet like children, we live TO learn
by the experience which is paid for
in sorrow and suffering.
1t was British sea captain who