PURULENT OTITIS—ITS TREATMENT AND PREVENTION BY THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN.

The scope of the present paper is defined exactly by its title. It is to present to the practitioner the teaching of modern otology regarding a very important disease, for acute purulent inflammation of the middle ear is so common that the majority of cases, at least among children, are seen by the general practitioner, and not by the specialist. Frequent experience has shown me that the form of treatment which progressive otologists have recognized as the best and safest has not yet been adopted by all general practitioners. Yet it is so much simpler than the less efficient methods so often employed or advised by physicians. It is but the application of ordinary surgical principles to purulent inflammation localized in the ear. Just as in the preantiseptic days, wounds did heal after a fashion, so in incorrectly treated cases purulent otitis will often heal, but delays and unfortunate accidents