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any nasal treatment required. Home treatment is unsatisfactory.
It is rarely ever correctly done and this leads quickly to the condition
of chronic otorrhoea which is the one important thing to avoid in
effecting a speedy cure, with no lasting disability.
The French method of Diastolisation has been extensively
employed in various nasal conditions, and cases of deafness arising
from nasal defects, with the success which we have been accustomed
to expect of this interesting procedure.
As in previous years we regularly employed zinc ionisation for
treating chronic discharging ears, and we are able to say, from a
wide experience over some years in dealing with these intractable
cases, that there is no other method, so far, which can supersede
or equal ionisation—given the correct technique—in rapidly and
successfully curing chronic otorrhoea. Also the saving in time for
both the patient and the clinic is very considerable.
A very large number of children were found to have varying
degrees of infection of the nasal sinuses. We have greatly extended
the use of Proetz nasal "displacement'' in dealing with these nasal
conditions and we find it a most valuable method. Again, the
correct technique is most important, and we have found the more
recent modifications, such as the Le Mee and Parkinson positions,
a considerable improvement in suitable cases. We have used with
much success a 5 to 10 per cent solution of Schering's Albucidasa
' 'replacement'' medium to wash out the sinuses.
A number of children with "enlarged" or "unhealthy" tonsil
were treated by "tonsil suction"—using a 5 to 10 per cent, solution
of Albucid to cleanse the tonsil crypts. There is a considerable
field of usefulness for this method.
Special ear, nose and throat examinations were held at the School
for the Deaf during the year and any cases found requiring clinic
treatment were referred to the treatment clinics for their prescribed
courses. Certain treatments, such as diastolisation, were carried
out at the school by the clinic nurse who also attends to treatments
at the Deaf School.
Audiometer tests were carried out for the children suffering
from hearing defects, attending the clinic. It was not possible to
carry out a complete audiometric survey of all the school children,
as has been done in pre-war years; for such a "survey'' to be correctly
and usefully done entails a very considerable call on staff time, and
in the existing circumstances, with the staff at its minimum, this