Fleury de Clermont mentions a woman of twenty-five who consulted
him for removal of a pin which was in her right ear. Vain
attempts by some of her lay-friends to extract the pin had only
made matters worse. The pin was directed transversely, and its
middle part touched the membrane tympanum. The mere touching of
the pin caused the woman intense pain; even after etherization it
was necessary to construct a special instrument to extract it.
She suffered intense cephalalgia and other signs of meningitis;
despite vigorous treatment she lost consciousness and died
shortly after the operation.
Winterbotham reports an instance in which a cherry-stone was
removed from the meatus auditorius after lodgment of upward of
sixty years. Marchal de Calvi mentions intermittent deafness for
forty years, caused by the lodgment of a small foreign body in
the auditory canal. There is an instance in which a carious molar
tooth has been tolerated in the same location for forty years.
Albucasius, Fabricius Hildanus, Pare, and others, have mentioned
the fact that seeds and beans have been frequently seen to
increase in volume while lodged in the auditory canal. Tulpius
speaks of an infant, playing with his comrades, who put a
cherry-seed in his ear which he was not able to extract.
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