Publication Date: 1904
Seller: Antiq. F.-D. Söhn - Medicusbooks.Com, Marburg, Germany
Lancet, 1904/2. - London, John Bale , Sons & Danielsson, Ltd., 1904, 8°, 8 pp., 1 plate with 2 Figs., orig wrappers; Spine restored. Rare Offprint! "Mr. Cuthbert S. Wallace and Mr. H. J. Marriage described a case in which an attempt had been made to divide the eighth nerve within the skull for the relief of tinnitus. The patient, a girl, aged 23, contracted left otitis media in 1898. Several operations followed, and four years afterwards she began to suffer from tinnitus and vertigo, which symptoms increased in intensity to such a degree that life was rendered well-nigh intolerable. It was therefore decided to attempt to divide the eighth nerve, as in the operation for the exploration of the posterior surface of the petrous bone. The procedure was very difficult on account of the constant discharge of cerebro-spinal fluid and haemorrhage, but the auditory nerve was exposed and finally divided with a blunt hook. Noises were present on the following day. There was no facial paralysis. The wound never showed reaction, and continued to discharge. The patient gradually sank and died on the twenty-first day. At the necropsy it was found that a fine strand of the auditory nerve had escaped division. There was no meningitis, and the internal ear presented a normal appearance. Dr. Farquhar Buzzard said, that his examination of the nerve showed that the vestibular and two-thirds of the coeliac nerves were degenerated as a result of the resection of the nerve. Very little was known as to the morbid anatomy of tinnitus, which was a rare symptom in gross lesions of the brain, except where the nerve roots at the base were affected. There was little or no evidence in favour of its central origin." Frederick Taylor and F. J. Smith: Reports of Societies. Clinical Society Oof London. The British Medical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2258 (Apr. 9, 1904), pp. 838-840 Sir Cuthbert Sidney Wallace, 1st Baronet (1867-1944) British surgeon. Herbert James Marriage (1872- ) Aural Surgon. Sir Edward Farquhar Buzzard (1871-1945) British physician and Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford (1928-1943).