middle ear, by the eardrum membrane. The
drum membrane is a thin, skinlike membrane stretched tightly across
the bottom of the external opening in the ear or auditory canal, and
shuts it off completely from the middle ear within, and in this way
protects the middle ear from the entrance of germs, dust, and water,
but only secondarily aids hearing. The obstruction caused by wax
usually exists in about the middle of the auditory canal or opening in
the ear, and only causes deafness when it completely blocks this
passage.

The deafness is sudden because, owing to the accidental entrance of
water, the wax quickly swells and chokes the canal; or, in attempts to
relieve irritation in the ear, the finger or some other object is
thrust into the opening in the ear (auditory canal) and presses the
wax down on the ear drum. The obstruction in the ear is usually a
mixture of waxy secretion from the canal, and little scales of dead
skin which become matted together in unwise efforts at cleansing the
ear by introducing a twisted towel or some other object into the ear
passage and there turning it about; or it may occur owing to disease
of the ear altering the character of the natural secretion. In the
normal state, the purpose of the wax is, apparently, to repel insects
and to glue together the little flakes of cast-off skin in the
auditory canal, and these, catching on the hairs lining the canal, are
thrown out of the ears upon the shoulders by the motion of the jaws in
eating.

Nothing should be introduced into the ear with the idea of cleansing
it, as the skin growing more rapidly from within tends naturally to
push the dead portions out as required, and so the canal is
self-cleansing.

=Symptoms.=--Sudden deafness in one ear usually calls the attention of
the patient to an accumulation of wax. There is apt to be more or less
wax in the other ear as well. Noises in the deaf ear and a feeling of
pressure are also common. Among rarer symptoms are nausea and
dizziness. But the only way to be sure that deafness is due to choking
of the ear passage with wax is to see it. This is usually accomplished
by a physician in the following way: he throws a good light from a
mirror into a small tube introduced into the ear passage. This is, of
course, impossible for laymen to do, but if the ear is drawn upward,
backward, and outward, so as to straighten the canal, it may be
possible for anyone to see a mass of yellowish-brown or blackish
ma