n the insect should be removed in
half an hour by syringing as recommended for wax (p. 35).

To remove solid bodies, turn the ear containing the body, downward,
pull it outward and backward, and rub the skin just in front of the
opening into the ear with the other hand, and the object may fall out.

Failing in this, syringing with warm water, as for removal of wax,
while the patient is sitting, may prove successful. The essentials of
treatment then consist, first, in keeping cool; then in killing
insects by dropping oil or water into the ear, and, if syringing
proves ineffective, in using no instrumental methods in an attempt to
remove the foreign body, but in awaiting such time as skilled medical
services can be obtained. If beans or seeds are not washed out by
syringing, the water may cause them to swell and produce pain. To
obviate this, drop glycerin in the ear which absorbs water, and will
thus shrivel the seed.

=EARACHE.=--Earache is due usually not to neuralgia of the ear, but to
a true inflammation of the middle ear, which either subsides or
results in the accumulation of inflammatory products until the drum is
ruptured and discharge occurs from the external canal. The trouble
commonly originates from an extension of catarrhal disease of the nose
or throat; the germs which are responsible for these disorders finding
their way into the Eustachian tubes, and thus into the middle ear. Any
source of chronic catarrh of the nose or throat, as enlarged and
diseased tonsils, adenoids in children, or nasal obstruction, favor
the growth of germs and the occurrence of frequent attacks of acute
catarrh or "colds." The grippe has been the most fruitful cause of
middle-ear inflammation and earache in recent years. Any act which
forces up fluid or secretions from the back of the nose into the
Eustachian tubes (see section on Deafness) and thus into the middle
ear, is apt to set up inflammation there, either through the
introduction of germs, or owing to the mechanical injury sustained.
Thus the use of the nasal douche, the act of sniffing water into the
nose, or blowing the nose violently when there is secretion or fluid
in the back of the nose, or the employment of the post-nasal syringe
are one and all attended with this danger. Swimming on the back,
diving, or surf bathing also endangers the ear, as cold water is
forcibly driven not only into the external auditory canal, but, what
is more frequently a source of damage