Ultrasonics and progressive deafness.

Abstract

The solution of the very important and difficult problems presented by progressive deafness due to otosclerosis—its cause, prevention, and cure—is to be found in the biological implications and applications of the newly acquired and as yet incompletely correlated data in the field of ultrasonics. As there are light waves which are beyond the physiological range of human visual perception, there are sound waves that are imperceptible to the human ear—the ultrasonics. The most silent centrifuge has an ultrasonic specter extending to 100 000 cy/sec. The telephone bell produces frequencies to 50 000 cy/sec, powerful, but silent, imperceptible to us. The traffic of everyday life, in the train, bus, car, next to the audible noise, hides a tremendous amount of silent sound which is frightfully dangerous to our hearing organ. A significant fact of modern research is that the intensities of ultrasonics are of not primary importance in influencing the chemical changes in human proteins. Sonics and ultrasonics are e...