Kauffmann expresses the opinion that the
noises were due to clonic spasm of the tensor velum palati, and
states that under appropriate treatment the tinnitus gradually
subsided.
The introduction of foreign bodies in the ear is usually
accidental, although in children we often find it as a result of
sport or curiosity. There is an instance on record of a man who
was accustomed to catch flies and put them in his ear, deriving
from them a pleasurable sensation from the tickling which ensued.
There have been cases in which children, and even adults, have
held grasshoppers, crickets, or lady-birds to their ears in order
to more attentively listen to the noise, and while in this
position the insects have escaped and penetrated the auditory
canal. Insects often enter the ears of persons reposing in the
fields with the ear to the ground. Fabricius Hildanus speaks of a
cricket penetrating the ear during sleep. Calhoun mentions an
instance of disease of the ear which he found was due to the
presence of several living maggots in the interior of the ear.
The patient had been sleeping in a horse stall in which were
found maggots similar to those extracted from his ear. An
analogous instance was seen in a negro in the Emergency Hospital,
Washington, D.
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