A BOX ON THE EAR.

Dunstan Times, Issue 804, 14 September 1877, Page 4

A BOX ON THE EAR.

o—'(Continued from our last.) If the outer ear wore ns sensitive as the outer membrane of the eye, doubtless people would as little give children a box on the ear as a blow in the eye —of the two, indeed, the latter would be productive dt u;he least permanent 'injury. A blow >on the ear not only shakes the'whole of'the delicate structure'of the 'head, and of the brain, ■ which dies'within thecranitim, or great bony box that forms 'the larger part of the skull, but it differently affects ■the organ of hearing 'itself iin those inner and central portions by whose agency the function of hearing is performed. No one who has not seen them can imagine the exquisite delicacy of the tiny bones, the thin membranes, the fine arrangements of nerves, of blood-vessels, of vibrating fluids, for whoso accommodation a special little hollow is carved out of the bones of the skull A blow of the hand brought to bear on the ear is like a blow with a hammer on a thin case containing delicate vessels of precious Venetian glass. A box on the ear is one of the most senseless and cruel of all the punishments inflicted on children. Cases of death, resulting a« quickly as the one recorded above, do not, it is true, often occur. But cases of deafness, as all aurists know, are very frequent, and abscesses of a serious kind not unfiequently come from a ■slight blow—such as may be given merely in fun. We would beg all who may be inclined to inflict a box on the ear to pause in time, and not to do it. They may in a moment inflict injuries which can never be repaired.