The Deaf | Page 9

non-suppurative, or rather catarrhal in character. Of diseases of the internal ear, 89 per cent are affections of the nerve, and 10 per cent of the labyrinth. It is to be noted that when the affection is of the internal ear, the result is usually total deafness.
By specified diseases, the leading causes of deafness are scarlet fever (11.1 per cent), meningitis (9.6), brain fever (4.7), catarrh (3.6), "disease of middle ear" (3.6), measles (2.5), typhoid fever (2.4), colds (1.6), malarial fever (1.2), influenza (0.7), with smaller proportions from diphtheria, pneumonia, whooping cough, la grippe, and other diseases. A large part of deafness is seen to be due to infectious diseases, the probabilities being that fully one-third is to be so ascribed, with one-fifth from infectious fevers alone.
After birth and under two years of age, the chief causes of deafness are meningitis, scarlet fever, disease of middle ear, brain fever, and measles. From two to five scarlet fever and meningitis are far in the lead, with many cases also from brain fever, disease of middle ear, measles, and typhoid fever. From five to ten scarlet fever alone outdistances all other diseases, followed in order by meningitis, brain fever and typhoid fever. From ten to fifteen the main causes are meningitis, scarlet fever, brain fever, and catarrh; from fifteen to twenty catarrh and meningitis; from twenty to forty catarrh, colds and typhoid fever; and from forty on, catarrh.
The following table[20] will show in detail the several causes of deafness and their respective percentages.
CAUSES OF DEAFNESS
Total classified 48.5 External ear 0.6 Impacted cerumen 0.2 Foreign bodies 0.1 Miscellaneous 0.3 Middle ear 27.2 Suppurative 19.6 Scarlet fever 11.1 Disease of ear 3.6 Measles 2.5 Influenza 0.7 Other causes 1.7 Non-suppurative 7.6 Catarrh 3.6 Colds 1.6 Other causes 2.4 Internal ear 20.7 Labyrinth 1.8 Malarial fever 1.2 Other causes 0.6 Nerves 18.5 Meningitis 9.6 Brain fever 4.7 Typhoid fever 2.4 Other causes 1.8 Brain center 0.3 Miscellaneous 0.1 Unclassified 45.3 Congenital 33.7 Old age 0.3 Military service 1.0 Falls and blows 2.8 Sickness 2.7 Fever 2.0 Hereditary 0.3 Miscellaneous 2.5 Unknown 6.2
In fairly approximate agreement with the returns of the census, are the records of the special schools for the deaf in respect to the causes of deafness in their pupils, with information also as to the amount from the minor diseases. The following table will give the causes by specific diseases, as found in one school, the Pennsylvania Institution, for two years:[21]
CAUSES OF DEAFNESS OF PUPILS IN PENNSYLVANIA INSTITUTION
1906 1907 PER CENT PER CENT
Total number 510 100.0 500 100.0 Born deaf 213 41.8 206 41.2 Scarlet fever 43 8.2 47 9.4 Meningitis 36 7.1 40 8.0 Falls 24 4.7 25 5.0 Diseases of ear and throat 13 2.6 23 4.6 Catarrh and colds 13 2.6 -- -- Measles 18 3.5 18 3.6 Brain fever 17 3.3 16 3.2 Convulsions 14 2.8 13 2.6 Abscesses 10 2.0 12 2.4 La grippe 10 2.0 7 1.4 Accidents (not stated) 9 1.8 7 1.4 Whooping cough 7 1.4 7 1.4 Typhoid fever 7 1.4 6 1.2 Diphtheria 6 1.2 6 1.2 Mumps 5 1.0 5 1.0 Paralysis 5 1.0 4 0.8 Marasmus 2 0.4 4 0.8 Pneumonia 4 0.8 2 0.4 Dentition -- -- 2 0.4 Dropsy of blood 2 0.4 -- -- Chicken pox 1 0.2 1 0.2 Poisoning 1 0.2 1 0.2 Intermittent fever 1 0.2 1 0.2 Blood clotting on brain 1 0.2 -- -- Cholera infantum 1 0.2 -- -- Gastric fever -- -- 1 0.2 Sickness (not stated) 10 2.0 8 1.6 Unknown 37 7.3 38 7.6
POSSIBLE ACTION FOR THE PREVENTION OF ADVENTITIOUS DEAFNESS
In respect to present activities for the prevention of adventitious deafness, we find the situation very much like that of marking time. Deafness, since the beginning of time, has largely been accepted as the portion of a certain fraction of the race, and any serious and determined efforts for its eradication have been considered for the most part as of little hope.[22] With the auditory organs so securely hidden away in the head, entrenched within the protecting temporal bone, and with their structure so delicate and complicated, the problem may well have been regarded a baffling one even for the best labor of medicine and surgery. Hence it is that after deafness has once effected lodgment in the system, a cure has not usually been regarded as within reach, though for certain individual cases there may be medical examination and treatment, with attempts made at relief. For deafness in general, it has been felt that there has been little that could be done in the way of prevention or cure beyond the preservation of the general health and the warding off of diseases that might cause loss of hearing.
As a matter of fact, however, altogether too little attention has