Celsus gives very judicious directions for curing pain of the ears, but his treatment is little different from our author’s. When the pain is not violent he recommends abstinence alone; but if severe, venesection, purging, hot cataplasms from linseed and fenugreek, or sponges squeezed out of hot water. When the inflammation is particularly violent, poppies are to be added to the injections, which must be tepid; and when the ear is filled with them, soft wool is to be put over it to contain the injection. He mentions various compound applications, which contain poppies, castor, myrrh, alum, saffron, and the like.
Our author copies from Galen. He recommends the following simple application: Having scooped out the heart of an onion, fill it with oil, and having heated it in ashes, put it into the ear. He gives prescriptions for various injections and other compositions, which are similar to those of our author and Celsus.
Aëtius on this head is more brief and less distinct than our author.
Alexander, Actuarius, and Octavius Horatianus treat of these complaints very properly, but not differently from Celsus and our author. Alexander states correctly that inflammation within the ear sometimes spreads to the brain, and proves fatal. He enjoins caution in using opiate applications to the ear, as he has seen dangerous effects from them by their inducing stupor. He particularly approves of introducing steam into the ear, by means of a tube connected with a vessel containing some boiling decoction.
Marcellus gives a long list of empirical applications, from which, perhaps, something valuable might be extracted. He recommends, like some of the other authorities, a solution of alum in hot vinegar, with some honey. We shall see in [the twenty-sixth Section] that alum was much used for allaying the pains of toothach. Among the ingredients in his injections we remark tepid milk, opium, castor, spikenard, saffron, opobalsam, millepedes, &c.
The treatment directed by the Methodist Cælius Aurelianus is little different from that of the other sects. He approves of putting tepid oil into the ear; of stuffing it with wool; of using fomentations, cataplasms, leeches, and scarifications; and when the disease becomes chronic, of shaving the head, and applying acopa, dropaces, malagmata, and so forth.
Serapion and Rhases treat the complaint exactly like our author.
Avenzoar relates a case of inflammation seated in the meatus, which he cured by filling it with oil of eggs. He further recommends bleeding and the other remedies already mentioned. Avicenna treats of diseases of the ear most minutely and scientifically, but at too great length for us to do justice to his account of them. For pains from a hot cause he recommends camphor-oil, or oil of violets with camphor. Mesue also treats of these complaints very minutely. When the pain is violent, he recommends injections containing poppies, henbane, mandrake, nightshade, and the like. Haly Abbas, in such cases, also approves of rose-oil, with opium, the juice of mandrake, &c. Alsaharavius varies his treatment according to the nature of the exciting cause. When it is caused by congestion of blood in the organ, he recommends bleeding, abstinence from wine, a restricted diet, and pouring warm oil into the ear. When it arises from a cold cause he approves of oil of costus, of spikenard, &c., and of applying to the ear a cataplasm of hot flour.
On ulcers of the ears. Aëtius and Alexander give various prescriptions for these cases. The fullest account, however, is contained in Galen (sec. loc.) When there is a discharge of pus, attended with pain, Octavius recommends alum, mixed with honey and oil. When ulcers of the ears are recent, Mesue recommends injections of honied water, wine and honey, vinegar and honey, or the like, by a syringe. They are to be dried by means of olibanum, or sarcocolla dissolved in wine. He also praises myrrh, aloes, alum, and red arsenic, as ingredients in the applications to ulcers of the ears. When the ulcers are chronic, they are first to be cleansed by such applications as the decoction of wormwood in wine, or oxymel of squills, with a small quantity of the flowers of copper; then they are to be dressed with the usual incarnants; and, lastly, they are to be dried or cicatrized by compositions containing aloes, myrrh, and frankincense. When the ulcers are foul, he and Serapion recommend escharotics, such as the scoria æris. Haly’s applications are quite similar. For sanious discharge he recommends us to wipe the ear with a piece of cloth wrapped round a probe, and dipped in an astringent solution. He directs us to remove fungous flesh by an operation, or with the ointment of flos æris. In this case Celsus recommends applications, consisting of verdigris and honey, or frankincense, or squama aris triturated with red arsenic. These powerful ingredients enter into some of the compositions recommended by Rhases.