Recognizing the truth of the statement that it is by our mistakes as well as by our successes that we profit, I wish to submit the following short report of an unexpected and unforeseen accident that occurred to me a short time ago:
A woman, aged 20 (a private patient), refined and of a highly nervous temperament, complained of fulness, tinnitus and some impairment of hearing, etc., in her left ear. The diagnosis was tubotympanic catarrh. In order to shrink the mucous membrane of the eustachian tube so that I could get a blast of air freely into the middle ear or pass a eustachian bougie, a Yankauer's eustachian applicator tipped with cotton soaked in a mixture of cocain and epinephrin was passed well into the tube. When this was removed it was discovered that the distal end had broken off, consisting of the cotton tip and an inch of