N. McG., a robust Irish girl aged 17, about ten days in the United States, applied on May 8, 1891, for treatment on account of a severe earache of the right ear that had commenced twenty-four hours before and had become progressively worse since its onset. She gave a history of catching cold about three weeks previously, adding to it during the voyage across the Atlantic and on the cars to Chicago. On examination marked tenderness was elicited on pressure over the tragus and downward behind the ramus as far as the angle of the inferior maxilla. The drum membrane was intensely reddened, thickened, and its landmarks buried. The adjacent soft parts of the external auditory canal were swollen and injected, especially those of upper posterior wall. The mucous membrane of the nasal cavities was hypertrophic, and it and that of the naso-pharynx was still inflamed and discharging. The Eustachian
Read full abstract