INTRODUCTION. TWENTY years have nearly elapsed since I first published my Treatise on the Physiology and Diseases of the Ear, which I have had the satisfaction to see reach a fifth edition, and which has met with a reception almost unprecedented. My other works on the Ear, both as regards its various affections and the treatment of the Deaf and Dumb, have likewise been very generally esteemed. As calculated to instruct the junior practitioner, my Map of the Anatomy of the Ear, exhibiting its internal, intermediate, and external structure, with the bones in situ, together with the principal nerves and blood-vessels in its immediate vicinity; and also my Synoptical Chart of the various Diseases of the Ear, shewing, at one view, their order, classification, seat, symptoms, causes, and treatment, have been favourably received. Having now completed the whole of my works on the Ear-seeing the Institution which I founded for the cure of its diseases completely B established,* and patronised by the KING, the QUEEN, and the ROYAL FAMILY, as well as by nearly all the principal Nobility, Men of Science, and Professional Characters, and having given advice and assistance to upwards of 15,000 persons, the greater number of whom have been cured or relieved, by a mode of treatment which has not only been successfully employed in this country, but also in France, Germany, and America; while Otorrhoea, and Deafness and Dumbness, diseases of the most formidable description, have been more thoroughly investigated, and many cases of a nature hitherto deemed hopeless radically cured; I have now leisure to turn my attention to what I have for some time contem * The Royal Dispensary for Diseases of the Ear was instituted in 1816, under the patronage of his Majesty George the Fourth, the Dukes of York, Kent, and Cumberland, and, among the distinguished members of the medical profession, Sir Walter Farquhar, Dr. Baillie, Dr. Sims, Mr. Cline, Dr. Babington, Sir Astley Cooper, Mr. Leese, &c. At a late meeting of the Governors, it was resolved, in order to extend its sphere of usefulness, to enlarge the present building, to enable it to receive within it walls not only deaf and dumb patients, but also persons from the country afflicted with deafness or other diseases of the ear, destitute of a habitation in the metropolis. plated, viz. Diseases of the Eye-an organ of exquisite sensibility, and of wonderfully beautiful construction. Many discoveries are made by chance, others by observation; and the one I have now the satisfaction of communicating to the profession is of great importance to a large class of sufferers. While treating cases of deafness, in which the patient's sight happened also to be affected, I have often been agreeably surprised to find, that while removing the deafness by constitutional treatment, the healthy action of the nerves of the ear has extended its influence to the eye, which has in this way, in numerous instances, been restored to the exercise of its functions. This undesigned coincidence was too striking, and likely to be too important in its results, for me to overlook: I accordingly directed my attention in a more particular manner to the subject, and being convinced, by my subsequent practice, that I had not been mistaken in my estimate of the causes to which I had attributed the consentaneous cure of two maladies by one line of treatment, I determined to publish my views on a topic so interesting to humanity. From many years' attentive observation, I The Optic Nerves, from their origin to their termination. The Internal Ear.-The Labyrinth laid open, so as to shew the parts it contains. 1. The cochlea, with its walls en tirely removed, shewing the lines on its lamina spiralis. 2. The vestibule. 3. The posterior semi-circular canal. 4. The superior or vertical canal. 5. The canal formed by the junction of the contiguous limbs of the canals. 6. The horizontal semi-circular canal. 7, 8, 9. The three turns of the spiral lamella of the cochlea, seen from below. 10. Edge of the lamina spiralis becoming continuous with the periosteum of the rest of the cochlea. 11. The two foveæ of the vestibule, which on this side are united in one. 12. Membranous tube of the posterior semi-circular canal: 13. Its elliptical dilatation. 14. Membranous tube of the superior semi-circular canal. 15. Membranous tube common to the superior and posterior semi-circular canals. 16. The extremities of the membranous tube belonging to the horizontal canal. 17. The acoustic nerve. INTRODUCTION. TWENTY years have nearly elapsed since I first published my Treatise on the Physiology and Diseases of the Ear, which I have had the satisfaction to see reach a fifth edition, and which has met with a reception almost unprecedented. My other works on the Ear, both as regards its various affections and the treatment of the Deaf and Dumb, have likewise been very generally esteemed. As calculated to instruct the junior practitioner, my Map of the Anatomy of the Ear, exhibiting its internal, intermediate, and external structure, with the bones in situ, together with the principal nerves and blood-vessels in its immediate vicinity; and also my Synoptical Chart of the various Diseases of the Ear, shewing, at one view, their order, classification, seat, symptoms, causes, and treatment, have been favourably received. Having now completed the whole of my works on the Ear-seeing the Institution which I founded for the cure of its diseases completely B |