Evening star., 1923-02-23
If Your Head Is Noisy, Sing.

Back forninst the flood I told here
how persons with deafness duo to
trouble in the eustachian tube may
hear better by making faces Is a reg
ular remedial exercise. 1 now have
some good news for persons who are
growing deaf and have ear or head
noises, although their friends may not
call it good news. 1t is this: A little
practice in singing every day often
greatly improves the hearing and does
away with the head noises. DR.. Paul
". Winslow. attending ear. nose and
throat surgeon at Brooklyn State
Hospital, and vice president OF the
National Round Table for Speech I'm
provement, reports a series Of cases,
both children and young and old
adults, in which singing. humming
and reading exercises, carefully car
ried out for the purpose of building
up the voice. have proved remarkably
beneficial to the impaired hearing.
Deaf persons are notorious for their
unmusical voices. They seem to ac-
Quire the habit Of speaking In mono
tone or in queer dead tone without
that infection or modulation wnicn
| makes a we'll trained voice pleasing.
Some very deaf persons. perhaps so
deaf they scarcely hear their own
voices. are SO hard to listen to that
they jar ones nerves. No need or
that. They could have pleasant voices;
the business Of improving the voice
at the same time tends to improve
the hearing.
One Of Dr. winslow's cases. that Of
a physician who had been deaf for
| thirty years, with marked tinnitus
(head noises) and purulent discharge
from one ear. had required mastoid
operation. The patient complained OF
frequent colds in the head Chad he
known there was no such condition
| the poor doctor might not have be-
come deaf, mucuS droppfngs In the
back of the throat and huskiness OF
voice. He had had the malleus and
incus (hammer and anvill removed
from his left ear when he was a
medical student. yet. strange to say,
had been deaf in that ear ever since.
nor did the removal of the hammer
.. and anvil prevent the noise in the
ear.
The man couldn't hear his own
voice, hence could not gauge its VOL
! ume or pitch. Whether his wife. IL
any, left him. the protocol does not
mention:
The doctor could hear conversation
not at all with his left ear and only
six inches with his right ear. After
a course of voice culture he could
hear his own voice and gauge its
volume and pitch well; he could hear
conversation three feet with his right
ear and six inches with the left. He
had no more head noises; In fact, he
chippered up and felt and looked like
a new man. (Now, suppose his wife
| had lost patience and taken the air
! what a terrible mistake that would
! have been. l mention this as warn
ing to wives whose husbands grow a
| little deaf)
| What the singing. humming and
| reading exercises are DR.. Winslow
| does not detail. He mentions that it
! Is excellent practice to hum the con-
sonant NJ in such a way that the lips
| can be felt vibrating and to sing the
vowel E for two-minute periods three
times a day high up in the nasal
chambers with decided nasal twang.
Perhaps this explains why George M.
Cohan never lost his hearing. Id
suggest the coal cellar or the back
pasture as a good place in which to
practice until your voice is tuned.