CAUSES OF DEAFNESS.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 189, 22 February 1878, Page 7

CAUSES OF DEAFNESS.

The Stawell Chronicle (Australia), after referring to many wonderful cures of deafness performed by Professor Stanich says : — Previous to leaving, he left with us some hints with reference to the treatment of children, with a request that they should be put before tbe public. That request we are perfectly willing to comply witb, since a portion of it will partake of the nature- of a revelation to very many of our readers. They may possibly have been aware that a violent box on the ears was at times injurious, but would scarcely have been able to arrive at the conclusion that pulling the ear was equally dangerous. Those who pull children's ears for punishment, and those also who perform the process in a milder way as something between caressing and teasing, have never thought possibly that they were endangering- tbe hearing. Yet the Professor!, with an experience as aunst extending over more than a quarter of a centmy, states distinctly that such conduct in every instance jeopardises, and'in many cases seriously injures, the faculty of hearing. In the earlier stages of a child's life, boxing or pulling the ear can scarcely be done without injury, such is the delicate nature of the mechanism by which the

waves of sound are conveyed to the sensorium. When we call to mind the

large number of deaf people we meet with, and think that in very many cases they have been rendered so by chastisment deemed necessary by parents, gaurdians, or tutors, the fact that they are now shown the evil of their con-duct-should be one that would have a result for good. Anyone. who made an unfortunate child blind by striking it in the eye' would at once be punishable, and feelretnorse. The injury must be immediately apparent. As this is not the case with regard to deafness, fhe man who inflicts the injury not only escapes scatheless, but also remains unblamed for the affliction, which is credited to the operations of nature, or to some incautious act on tbe part of the sufferer. It is in the hope that some I attention may be paid ..to the matter that we thus refer to the subject. If children need punishment there are a thousand and one ways by which it can be inflicted without making it possible that the loss of the most important sense but one may be the result.