A CASE OF PRIMARY EXTERNAL INFLAM- 
MATION OF THE MASTOID 
1!Y 
SWAN M. BURNETT 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
[Reprinted from Archives of Otology, Vol. ix, No. 2, June 1st, 1880.] A CASE OF PRIMARY EXTERNAL INFLAMMA- 
TION OF THE MASTOID. 
ACCORDING to Knapp, Turnbull and others, this 
form of mastoid inflammation, first described by 
Voltolini, seems to be uncommon, and for this reason I am 
induced to report the following case of that character which 
fell under my observation some years ago. 
Mr. P. F., a carpenter, 28 years of age, after an exposure to 
cold, was seized with a pain back of the ear, accompanied with 
swelling. When I first saw him, the swelling was confined to the 
portion of the temporal bone at the rear, and slightly above the 
auricle. 
It finally extended over the whole of the mastoid, and to 
the external meatus. There was no evidence of existing or pre- 
vious disease of the auditory apparatus, and the Mt, on inspection, 
was found to be normal, and the hearing power good. It soon be- 
came evident that pus was forming, but all operative interference 
was refused, and treatment was limited to hot applications and 
anodynes. 
In the course of ten or twelve days pus discharged from the 
external meatus, and it was discovered, when the swelling had 
sufficiently diminished to allow inspection, that it came from an 
opening just behind the cartilaginous portion of the external 
meatus from above. The pus had evidently burrowed backward 
along the cartilage, until it could find an exit through the less 
resistant integument. In the course of a week the discharge had 
ceased, and all manifestations of the trouble had disappeared. 
Up to the time of the discharge of pus, there was considerable 
febrile excitement. 
Reprinted from the Archives of Otology, Vol. ix, No. 2, June, 1880.