FIG. 30.
These conditions are due to the unstable structure and large nerve and blood supply. Perhaps one of the most interesting points in connection with degeneracy of the nose is the fact that in most cases the structures are either arrested or excessively developed, to the extent of the entire absence of the inferior turbinate bone. This was the case in a girl thirteen years of age who died of tuberculosis. Her skull revealed many other forms of degeneracy as well. The deviation in the development of the two nasal cavities results from the excessive and arrested development of the turbinates, thus preventing inhalation and exhalation of air, the free side developing and the closed side remaining undeveloped. In such case the nose is deflected to the right or left, depending on which side is arrested. When both nostrils are closed the nose becomes thin and pointed and mouth-breathing results. In degenerate nasal cavities polypi (tumours) are apt to occur.
Persons with long, thin noses, arrested nasal cavities, sunken faces (as a result mouth-breathers), and with contracted chest walls are the subjects for tuberculosis. In such cases, especially when the nervous system is unstable, the different forms of catarrh are present. This condition worries the youth under the strain of puberty. To the catarrh which is merely a result is ascribed his constitutional defects. These somatic signs are quite noticeable in most of these cases, and by early recognition proper treatment, with change of climate, frequently prolongs life for years.
The so-called erectile tissue of the nose (containing blood whose flow is checked through spasm to increase sensation), that relic of a time when smell played a greater part among the senses, is apt to be affected by degeneracy either as to its excessive or imperfect development. From this comes the bleeding of the nose, so frequently an expression of nerve strain at puberty, which may take the place of menstruation. It is to be noted that while true hæmophilia (“bleeder” tendency) occurs chiefly in boys, epistaxis shows itself very frequently in their sisters. A remarkable illustration of this was reported by Dr. Delia E. Howe,[199] of the Fort Wayne (Indiana) School for the Feeble-minded. In cases of so-called male menstruation[200] the symptom is apt to be epistaxis.
The irregularity in blood supply predisposes the nose to attacks on its structure from pathogenic germs. Hay fever is an expression of nervous instability of these structures, and is especially apt to occur in neurasthenics, hysterics, and degenerates.
CHAPTER XII
Degeneracy of the Lip, Palate, Eye, and Ear
Each part or sense organ may, independently of the face as a whole, exhibit signs of degeneracy. The palate, lip, nose, eye, and ear have their own expressions of degeneracy. The palate, so far as the joining of its two parts is concerned, resists degeneracy to a remarkable degree. The cleft, which results from non-union, is usually an expression of general degeneracy acted on by its nutritive expression, albeit cleft-palate may be associated with the graver degeneracies like idiocy.