This week two awareness weeks coincide, both within our area of interest and coverage, namely Deaf Awareness Week and Noise Action Week.

Deaf Awareness Week is themed this year on “Equality In Communication For All” .

Noise Action Week “is an annual opportunity to focus the attention of communities on the problems excessive noise can cause for us all – at home, at work, at study and at leisure.”

Below is a list of recent articles on various aspects of noise and health, from noise mapping, to noise pollution and environmental noise.  Click on the links for abstracts or access to full articles where available:

Kephalopoulos S et al.  Advances in the development of common noise assessment methods in Europe: The CNOSSOS-EU framework for strategic environmental noise mapping.  The Science of the Total Environment, 2014 Jun 1;482-483:400-10. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.02.031. Epub 2014 Feb 28.

Kim, S.J.et al.  Exposure-Response Relationship Between Aircraft Noise and Sleep Quality: A Community-based Cross-sectional Study  (2014) Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives, Article in Press 

Turunen, M.et al.  Indoor environmental quality in school buildings, and the health and wellbeing of students (2014) International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health,  Article in Press

Hooper, R.E.  Acoustic shock controversies  (2014) Journal of Laryngology and Otology, Article in Press

Holzman, D.C.  Fighting noise pollution: A public health strategy (2014) Environmental Health Perspectives, 122 (2), pp. A58

Banerjee, D. et al.  Association between road traffic noise and prevalence of coronary heart disease (2014) Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 186 (5), pp. 2885-2893

Basner, M. et al  Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health (2014) The Lancet, 383 (9925), pp. 1325-1332

Sygna, K. et al.  Road traffic noise, sleep and mental health (2014) Environmental Research, 131, pp. 17-24

Seltenrich, N.  Wind turbines: A different breed of noise? (2014) Environmental Health Perspectives, 122 (1), pp. A20-A25.

Until the middle of the 18th century, thinking about the way the inner ear worked was still dominated by Aristotle’s idea of “aer implantus”.

There were only a few who dared to speak out against this view.  Schelhammer in 1684 expressed a doubt that there was an implanted air in the ear, but offered no substitute. Valsalva (1704), Vieussens (1714), and Cassebohm (1734) suggested the prescence of fluid but made little of it for they still spoke of the “aer implantus.”  In 1739, Boerhaave quite specifically spoke of the prescence of fluid in the labyrinth. (Bast and Anson 1949)

Domenico Cotugno, a pioneer of neuroscience, was the first person to prove the presence of a serous fluid in the labyrinth and the first to associate this with sound transmission.  He believed that sound waves move the stapes which in turn move the labyrinthine fluid, considered that tones could be perceived by the semicircular canals but were analyzed in the cochlea (ibid).

When he was only 25, in 1761, his dissertation, Aquaeductibus auris humane internae, predated the work of Hermann von Helmholtz.  In it he described the vestibule, semicircular canals, and cochlea.  He demonstrated the labyrinthine fluid, and considered mechanisms of resonance, sound transmission, and hearing.  He depicted the columns in the bony spiral lamina of the cochlea known as Cotunnius’ columns.  His description of the nasopalatine nerve, and its role in sneezing anticipated Antonio Scarpa’s work. (Pearce 2004)

Born in Ruvo di Puglia, Cotugno was educated at a Jesuit school then was sponsored by the Duke d’Andria to attend the University of Naples, working in the Ospedale degli Incurabili.  He spent many hours studying in the library, a time he said that was the happiest of his life (hint!).  He received his doctorate from the Salerno Medical School in 1756.

Cotugno is an outstanding example of a humanistic physician. I addition to being one of the most prominent scientists of his time, he was also interested in art, architecture, nusismatics and antiquities. He accumulated a remarkable private library, a small part of which is still conserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples (Böni et al 1994)

When he died he left a large sum of money to the Ospedale degli Incurabili, now known as the Ospedale Domenico Cotugno.

His two illustrations from Auris humane are shown here.

De aquaeductibus auris humane internae anatomica dissertatio. 1761

Böni T, Benini A, Dvorak J. Domenico Felice Antonio Cotugno.  Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 1994 Aug 1;19(15):1767-70

Theodore H. Bast and Barry J. Anson.  The temporal bone and the ear. 1949

By Mina Krishnan

Researchers from the Royal Association for Deaf People, the University of Manchester, City University (London) and UCL – including our own Professor Bencie Woll in the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre – have conducted a research project on deaf BSL (British Sign Language) users living with dementia: their understanding of it, their ease of access to appropriate services and the impact of dementia on the deaf community.  Following the government’s policy document, Living Well With Dementia: A National Dementia Strategy – which lays out recommendations for early diagnosis and greater access to relevant information, but doesn’t make clear how it will apply to deaf people – this project was set up by a team of researchers and funded by the Alzheimer’s Society.

You have probably noticed that dementia has been in the news a lot lately.  Furthermore, connections between deafness and dementia have been indicated: for example, this recent news story, regarding recent research which suggests that deafness may in fact contribute to dementia.  Then there’s the difficulty of diagnosis among deaf people due to various factors, from problems with communication when attempting initially to consult doctors or hospital staff (about any health matters), to the unsuitability for sign language users of the tests currently used to identify cognitive disorders.

The research done for the Deaf People With Dementia project is vital to all of us; according to the WHO, the leading cause of hearing loss in adults is age-related (presbycusis).  Worldwide, this is believed to affect from one third to half of people over the age of 65 and more than half of those over 75; and this is expected to rise significantly during the next 20–30 years, especially in places like Europe and the U.S. where increasing life expectancy means an ageing population (WHO, 2011 – see link above).  With dementia believed to affect about 800,000 people in the UK – as well as, according to issue 733 of Bulletin (the official magazine of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, to which the library has a subscription if you’d like to come in and have a look) an estimated 25 million people knowing a close friend or family member with dementia – it seems highly likely that almost everyone will be affected at some point, either directly or indirectly.

Interested in finding out more?  You could try searching PubMed using terms such as deaf or deafness, hearing loss, presbycusis, dementia and so on.  If you’re a UCL student or staff member, it’s best to go via the electronic library web-page; or if you’re not, visit us here in the library where you’ll have greater access to articles using on-campus computers.  Of course, here in the library we’ll be happy to help you look for further information, too – just drop by during our opening hours or give us a call.

Evan Yellon, resident in 1906 at Eton Wick and in 1910 in St.Albans, had made it his business to expose quacks who tried to con money from people with deafness or hearing problems with the lure of ‘cures’. Yellon was himself deaf, and he edited The Albion Magazine for the Deaf.

The Drouet ‘Institute’ was a quack institute, supposedly founded by a ‘Dr. Drouet’ in 1888, established at 72 Regent’s Park Rd.  Late 19th century newspapers had adverts for this place as well as ‘articles’ – presumably essentially some form of syndicated adverts purporting to be reportage – praising it –

To cure is more noble than to kill; to save is a grander work than to destroy. The lover of mankind dwells more gladly on the labours of Harvey, Sydenham, Boerhaave, Jenner, Bichat, Pasteur, and Koch than on the triumphs won on the field of Battle. The opening of the Drouet Institute in the North-west of London, as a branch of the great and famous establishment in Paris, brings before the people of England the name of one of these benefactors of the human race. (The Standard)

In the first, 1906 edition of his book Surdus in search of his hearing, Yellon describes a visit to test this quack institute – by this time established at 10 Marble Arch. He describes the secretary’s office –

Open upon the desk was a huge ledger, and standing by it was a pile of cards. Just above the ledger a number of labelled bottles were arranged in careless order; while over the fireplace was affixed a great frame containing a selection of letters thanking Drouet’s for wondrous – in fact, staggering – “cures.” All very artistic!

Yellon was taken to see “Dr. Cuppen” –

The carpet was fine, really fine, and the chairs were good specimens of modern Chippendale, and upholstered with refined regard to fitness […] A pair of tapestry curtains hid from my wandering eye a room adjoining that I was seated in.

The curtains are flung aside and a shortish man beckons him into the consulting room, which “was one better than the secretary’s office, and more than one below the waiting room; for that was a really nice drawing room, while by all the signs this was a quack’s den.” On the desk were a number of dirty instruments. The man before him was got up in a “fantastic fashion”.

His frock-coat was orthodox enough; but he wore with it a shirt of startling hue, adorning the front of which was a “diamond” as big as a marble; and the jaunty butterfly tie vied in hue with the shirt. His patent leather shoes were a trifle cracked, and his face a warning to all observant beholders. The flabby gills, the shifty eyes, and the man’s appearance generally, would effectually have prevented me from being taken in, even had all else failed to do so.

The “Doctor” proceeds to examine Yellon’s ears with a filthy specula – “He took altogether not five minutes to make an examination a famous aurist took twenty-five over; and without the least regard for nose and throat.” Back in the male secretary’s office (the first room) Yellon offers a ‘no cure no payment’ deal – having in the meantime been writing out some bill apparently, the secretary hastened upstairs with Yellon’s offer, and on returning wrote “charge you nothing” on the paper with red ink. Marvelling that anyone should be taken in by the “transparent fakery”, and smiling at “the secretary’s disgusted look when reading my offer to pay by results”, Yellon leaves.

The man behind the Drouet Institute in London was the fraudster J.H. Nicholson, who was sent to prison in 1902. The French doctor Drouet who lent his name to the enterprise, was an obscure G.P. in Paris who died of drink .

Henry Labouchère, that fascinating newspaper man and politician, campaigned against the ‘Institute’ in The Truth.  In a 1904 libel action Dakhyl v. Labouchere (Surdus 1906 p.8),

a great deal of light was thrown upon the “Drouet Institute”, and Lord Chief Justice Mathew described it as “a disgraceful institution carried on for unworthy objects by discreditable means.” Since then the fake has dropped out of sight, though an attempt was made to re-start the business under another name.

In the continuance (second volume rather than second edition) of his book Surdus (1910), Yellon describes his earlier visit to the Drouet Institute “on behalf of a journal with which I was then connected” – perhaps The Truth?  The “Doctor” who was “Dr. Cuppen” in 1906 now appears under his true name – Crippen.  Anyone who knows anything about English crime will be familiar with this name. He had also gone under the name Franckel, in New Oxford St. in 1908, selling a “Catarrh Tonic”, and had used his wife’s surname calling himself “Barron [sic] Mackamotzki”. That this was the same person as Cuppen (also Kupfinn) or Crippen, only emerged in 1910 after his arrest.

As an addendum to the chapter Yellon says (Surdus 1910 p.11-12),

Just as this book was going to press the police discovered that a ghastly murder had apparently been committed at 39, Hilldrop Crescent, London, N.W., the private residence of “Dr.” Crippen. A human body seems to have been cut up and buried in quick-lime in the cellar. […] from what I saw of him he appeared to me about the last man I should expect to be guilty of any great crime. He simply belongs to the tribe of rat-men – the petty swindlers of afflicted people, and the first care of this tribe is to keep their own persons out of danger. Crippen had dissolute rogue written all over his face when I met him, but he did not seem to be the type of man to figure in a crime of passion. Still, no man can accurately forecast the trend of any one human character.

The Albion Magazine for the Deaf (vols 1-3 in the library) Vol 1 (6) p.103

“Dr” H.H. Crippen in the Albion 1910 Vol.3 Albion 1 001

The Standard (London, England), Tuesday, August 25, 1896; pg. 6; Issue 22512

Wellcome Library archives

Yellon, Evan, Surdus in search of his hearing, London  (1906 and 1910)

In the 1890s, a Belgian by the name of Dr. Hovent discovered that using a ‘bath’ of compressed air, that is a sealed chamber, he could ‘cure’ some forms of deafness. It seems probable that what he was doing was catching people with otitis media (glue ear) perhaps, or with some other obstruction in the eustachian and that the compressed air perhaps served to clear it, however Hovent says the eustachian tubes were clear in some cases (see below).

DR. HOVENT, of Brussels, has communicated to us an account of the case of a girl aged thirteen and a half years whom he had recently under his care. She had been gradually getting deaf since birth. The child was healthy in appearance, but suffered from sore-throats, which occurred, according to the mother’s statement, every fortnight. The deafness had partially cleared up under the energetic treatment of Dr. Bayer, of Brussels, who removed the tonsils and some post-nasal adenomata and frequently passed the Eustachian catheter upon the child, but the improvement was not maintained. Under the influence, however, of a regular course of compressed air-baths the hearing improved to a marked degree, as Dr. Hovent’s figures show. On Jan. 8tb, 1892, the ticking of a watch could be heard 7 centimetres away on each side, and on the 20th the ticking, presumably of the same watch, was audible at a distance of no less than 46 centimetres from either ear. The improvement in the left ear eventually equalled that in the light; but the daily notes show that at first the light ear improved more rapidly. As the child had been practically deaf from birth, she had received no auditory education, and her reports upon objective sounds were vitiated by her remembrance of subjective sounds. We agree with Dr. Hovent in considering that so remarkable and fortunate a circumstance as the cure of what may be termed almost congenital deafness by a course of treatment lasting under a fortnight ought to be put upon record, although experience would lead us to believe that the issue was exceptional.

The Lancet, Volume 142, Issue 3670, Page 1646, 30 December 1893

Click on images for larger size

At any rate, in 1897 Dr. W.R.Roe, headmaster of the Derby school, was sufficiently interested in Hovent’s work that he published the attached illustration and a short item about the process in Our Deaf and Dumb.

Below is the graph from Julian Hovent’s ‘Case Seven’ in his booklet (p.27). The boy was 15, “of a feeble constitution and lymphatico-nervous temperament.”  Aged one he had convulsions and a coma, diagnosed as meningitis. Aged seven to eight he had discharges from the ears and severe colds.  His parents were scrofulous or tuberculous.

Both tympanic membranes are somewhat congested and movable. The right one is slightly perforated near the extremity of the manubrium of the malleus.
Larynx and nose show nothing worthy of notice except a slight catarrhal rhinitis. Pharyngeal tonsils are enlarged. There is no obstruction of Eustachian tubes. […]My first idea was to refuse this patient as I could not hope to obtain a satisfactory result in deaf-muteness following meningitis. But he was so anxious to try the treatment and I had experienced so much trouble in getting some pupils to experiment with, that I decided to accept him (p.28)

The boy was not cured.

Below is one of Hovent’s graphs, showing how he used the ticking of a clock at different distances, in an attempt to make some scientific sense of the quality and quantity of a person’s hearing in an age before electronics.

The Incurably Deaf, Our Deaf and Dumb, 1897 Vol 2 (5), p.83

Hovent, Julian J., A New treatment of the so-called incurably deaf people, Liege [no date but ca 1893]

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL12729102W/A_new_treatment_of_the_so-called_incurably_deaf_people

Treponema pallidum is the bacterium that causes syphilis.  Until 1905 there was no effective treatment.  It is not always sexually transmitted and can be congenital as seems to be the case in the paragraph  below.  It can cause deafness, but whether the deafness in this example was a result of syphilis or from some other cause we cannot of course say.

In the memoirs of Fred Gilby we come across the following story (dated ca. 1889), entitled ‘A Tragic Case’;

Here I may tell […]about the saddest case I have ever come across, and I am now looking back over something like fifty years and more, – there was, in the Bow and Bromley Workhouse Infirmary a poor deaf and dumb woman, her husband was the same and they had deaf and dumb children – so far the case was distressing enough – – (we will not disclose the name.  It would be unkind to the children who are now living).  Then this poor creature began to develop syphilitic symptoms in the wrists and ankles, and one by one her arms and legs had to be amputated.  I remember that at the last she was reduced to catching a piece of slate pencil which dangled from above, between her teeth and then writing with it upon a slate – the slate of course had been fixed at a convenient angle.  We however could be understood by her easily enough through the sign language which she could see us using.  Her faith held out to the end.  The sins of her parents had indeed been visited upon her.  She was mercifully taken not long after.  R.I.P.  Quite an appreciable proportion of deaf people owe their affliction to the disease indicated. We veil it under the name of Hutchinsonian symptoms. If the reader wishes to pursue the subject further he should read Dr. Kerr Love’s Lectures on Deaf Mutism procurable from the National Institute for the Deaf.  I have come across some who refused to believe that this disease is ever inherited among the deaf.  A member of the committee of a school for the deaf in the north of England denied it with his heart, while the head master of the school quietly pointed out to me a score of such cases.

The ‘Hutchinsonian symptoms’ are named after Sir Jonathan Hutchinson. He “was the first to describe his triad of medical signs for congenital syphilis: notched incisor teeth, labyrinthine deafness and interstitial keratitis” (Wikipedia).  The discovery of penicillin greatly reduced the disease in the 1940s but the last decade has seen it begin to increase again. There is increasing concern in medical circles about the overuse of antibiotics which are our only effective tools against many diseases that are now becoming resistant through their wasteful or pointless overuse.

In his book The Diseases of the Ear, regarding hereditary syphilis, Toynbee says that deafness from that had at Guy’s Hospital

furnished more than one twentieth of the aural patients. […] The patients present the now familiar aspect of hereditary syphilis and have, in every case I have met with, suffered from impaired vision before the deafness has arisan.  This makes its appearance generally between the 10th and 16th year; about, but not precisely coinciding with, the perion of puberty.  The great majority of cases that I have seen have been in females.  […] I know of no other affection, except fever, which in a person under 20 brings on a deafness so prapid or nearly complete. (Toynbee, p.461)

Of course we are talking about “the poorer classes of the community” here (ibid).  He adds later, “In the wealthier ranks the symptoms are often much lkess marked” (p.462)!

[Post updated 24/11/2016 with Toynbee quotes]

F.W.G. Gilby, Seventy-two years among the deaf and dumb

Dr. Kerr Love,  Lectures on Deaf Mutism

Jospeh Toynbee, The Diseases of the Ear, their Nature, Diagnosis and Treatment. 1868 edition

Mary Ingle Wright, The pathology of  deafness, MUP 1971

Action on Hearing Loss has produced a new report, A World of Silence, on the challenges and problems facing older people in care home settings.

Care home residents are disproportionately affected by hearing loss. We estimate that around three-quarters of older people who live in these settings have a hearing loss and, as the number of people in care homes increases, more and more residents will be affected by hearing loss.

Here are some recent articles of possible interest on this topic and related issues:

Öberg M, Marcusson J, Nägga K, Wressle E.
Hearing difficulties, uptake, and outcomes of hearing aids in people 85 years of age.
Int J Audiol. 2012 Feb;51(2):108-15. Epub 2011 Nov 22.
PMID: 22107444

Domínguez MO, Magro JB.
Bedside balance testing in elderly people.
Curr Aging Sci. 2009 Jul;2(2):150-7. Review.
PMID: 20021409

Health Quality Ontario.
Social isolation in community-dwelling seniors: an evidence-based analysis.
Ont Health Technol Assess Ser. 2008;8(5):1-49. Epub 2008 Oct 1.
PMID: 23074510
Free PMC Article

Tay T, Wang JJ, Lindley R, Chia EM, Landau P, Ingham N, Kifley A, Mitchell P.
Sensory impairment, use of community support services, and quality of life in aged care clients.
J Aging Health. 2007 Apr;19(2):229-41.
PMID: 17413133

Cook G, Brown-Wilson C, Forte D.
The impact of sensory impairment on social interaction between residents in care homes.
Int J Older People Nurs. 2006 Dec;1(4):216-24.
PMID: 20925766

Murphy J, Tester S, Hubbard G, Downs M, MacDonald C.
Enabling frail older people with a communication difficulty to express their views: the use of Talking Mats as an interview tool.
Health Soc Care Community. 2005 Mar;13(2):95-107.
PMID: 15717911

Many people find fireworks intrusive and some find them painful because of conditions such as hyperacusis. Here are some articles on percussive noise and hearing. This is an area that has not seen much research recently, but one journal worth noting is Noise and Health.

Books / Reports:

Hinton, J. How to map noise. Pp. 3-7. In. Prasher, D (ed.) Noise Pollution and Health. (2003) NRN Publications, London.

Kerr, G. The effects of blast on the ear. Pp. 279-290 In. Luxon, L and Prasher, D. Noise and its effects. (2007) John Wiley & sons Ltd, Chichester.

Chapters & Articles:

Cornacchia, L and Lovotti, P.
Canalolithiasis due to a firework explosion: A case report.  Audiological Medicine. 2006;
4(2); 82-84.

Fleischer, G; Hoffmann, E; Muller, R et al.
Toy pistols and their effects on hearing.  HNO. 1998; 46(9); 815-820.
(Article in German)

Gupta, D and Vishwakarma, SK.
Toy weapons and firecrackers- a source of hearing loss.  Laryngoscope. 1989; 99(3); 330-334

Maglieri, DJ and Henderson, HR
Noise from aerial bursts of fireworks.  Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 1973; 54(5); 1224-7

Just T, Pau HW, Kaduk W, Hingst V.
[Danger from exploding fireworks and blank firearms].  HNO. 2000 Dec;48(12):943-8.
(Article in German)

Plontke, S; Herrman, C and Zenner, HP.
Hearing damage through fireworks on New Year’s Eve. Questionnaire on the incidence of blast trauma and explosion trauma in Germany at the end of the year, 1998/1999.  HNO. 1999; 47(12); 1017-1019.
(Article in German)

Plontke, SKR; Dietz, K; Pfeffer, C et al.
The incidence of acoustic trauma due to New Year’s firecrackers.  European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology. 2002; 259(5); 247-252.
(Article in German)

Plontke, S; Scheiderbauer, H; Vonthein, R et al.
Recovery of normal auditory threshold after hearing damage from fireworks and signalling pistols.  HNO. 2003; 51(3); 245-250.
(Article in German)

Smoorenburg, GF.
Risk of noise-induced hearing loss following exposure to Chinese firecrackers.  Audiology. 1993; 32(6); 333-343.

[Update: blast and explosion trauma].HNO. 2011 Aug;59(8):811-8.

(Article in German)

William Shakespeare’s birthday today marks the start of the London Globe Theatre’s Shakespeare festival for the ‘Cultural Olympiad’.

Deafinitely Theatre are performing Love’s Labours Lost.

See also the translation lectures here.

You can find DVDs of Shakespeare in BSL here, and in ASL there is a Shakespeare Project – ASL Shakespeare Project.

According to Van Den Bogaert et. al. “Among white adults, otosclerosis is the single most common cause of hearing impairment.”  Otosclerosis is a disease in which abnormal growth occurs on the bones of the middle ear resulting in a worsening ability for sounds to be conveyed to the cochlear (a conductive hearing loss). The mean age of onset is in the third decade and 90% of those affected are under 50 at the time of diagnosis (Van Den Bogaert et. al). It is not certain what causes it – possibly it is an autoimmune disease, but more probably a combination of genetic and environmental factors (Merchant et al.). When it can be caught there are possible interventions such as fluoride (no evidence that this is effective), hearing aids or surgery (which can be effective), but it cannot be ‘cured’.

People with, or thought to have had otosclerosis, include:

Actor Richard Thomas (famous on TV for The Waltons etc), Beethoven, Harriet Martineau, Frankie Valli,

Howard Hughes, and Queen Alexandra (see also here http://www.hearingreview.com/issues/articles/2004-10_02.asp)

http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/articles/Assistance/Awareness/22442-Actor-richard-thomas-john

Merchant, Saumil N. et al. Otosclerosis, Chapter 237e p.3453-85, inGleeson, Michael et al. eds. Scott-Brown’s otorhinolaryngology, head and neck surgery. 7th ed. London:  Hodder Arnold,   2008

Van Den Bogaert et al., Otosclerosis, Chapter 27 p.419-28 in Willems, Patrick J. (ed.) Genetic hearing loss. New York:  Marcel Dekker,   2004

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Otosclerosis.htm

Deafness Research UK

Below are five recent articles on otosclerosis from PubMed –

Decision making in advanced otosclerosis: an evidence-based strategy.