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10 years of age, was troubled with a complaint in her ears, at-
tended with severe pain and discharge of yellowish matter
from them, difficulty of hearing, much general debility, and
great depression of spirits.
No means had been omitted to
obtain the best medical and surgical advice
; but it had been
utterly unavailing. Her father and the greater part of her
brothers and sisters were also hard of hearing, and some of
them were sometimes troubled with a like discharge from
the ears, although not to such an extent, nor accompanied
with such severe pain. The case was consequently regard-
ed as incurable, and supposed to be owing to some natural
defect in the organization of the parts.
Nov. 23, 1818. She consulted me with a view of obtain-
ing relief from the tooth-ache, by the advice of her brother,
one of the few members of the family possessed of a per-
fect hearing. He had been some years previously under my
care, and was greatly impressed with the belief, that the
health of his teeth was one of the principal causes of the
preservation of this sense, and for this reason he was induced
to believe that the sufferings of his sister originated from the
diseases of her teeth.
I found her exceedingly agitated, and so full of apprehen-
sion that she actually wept ; and I had the greatest difficulty
in persuading her to let me look at her teeth. Having been
prpviously apprised of the nature of her malady, I had al-
ready bugun to suspect it was owing to diseases of her teeth,
particularly as she had been under the care of the most emi-
nent surgeons and physicians, who, I had every reason to be-
lieve, would have been successful, if the disease had not
been symptomatic. This opinion seemed confirmed by ob-
serving that there was no visible defect in the organization
of the ears, and by the reflection, that if any defect did