Deafness ~~ A Potpourri of Subjects
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---------RECENTLY ADDED------------
![]() Click here to watch an 8-year old Deaf Performance Artist. https://wwwww.youtube.com/watch?v=tRLf1io-zY0 __________________________________________________ ![]() This is the hand of a friendly ghost who uses ASL. This is not a joke !! Would you want to communicate with him or her? You can--- just be nice !! Join this serious group of Deaf ghost hunters. (Click here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGR-qfTDqko ________________________________________________________________ ![]() Deaf people are known as "People of the Eye". But their (and anyone's) eyes can be fooled by a form of art called "Tromp l'Oeil" (which translates to "fool the eye").
Get fooled on Page 7. That snake isn't what it looks like !!______________________________ ![]() Mona Lisa ---- was she deaf?
Look ok Page 7, right-hand column, way down. ________________________________________________
![]() This Deaf and mute American Indian, Black Coyote, son of Chief Sitting Bull, is believed to have ignited the shocking Massacre at Wounded Knee, 120 years ago, in which over 300 Indians and soldiers died.
Meet him on our Page 18, bottom right...…………... ![]() ……………… or read about him in this best-seller book. ________________________________________________________________
![]() A harmful and degrading thing experienced almost daily by D/deaf people. Page 6, left column, way down to near the bottom.
________________________________________ ![]() Meet the American who built the world's
first working TTY. He also invented most of those doorbell, wake-up, baby-cry, etc. signaling devices, basic to what deaf people use today. Meet William Shaw on Page 6, right column, halfway down. __________________________________________ ![]() Meet (Irwin) Lee Brody, another American who later came to mass-produce almost everything originated by William Shaw (above) ----and quite a few new things. Most notable were wireless connection between signal devices, and the first Braille TTY. Read his biography here:
https://library.rit.edu/findingaids/html/RITDSA.0008.html Dr. Wilde: "Only Two Kinds of Deafness"![]() "There are only two kinds of deafness. One is due to wax in the ear canal and is curable. The other is not due to wax and is not curable."
William Wilde, MD (1815-1876) We have an appointment with Dr. Wilde, an Irish otolaryngologist and surgeon, on our Page 8, to ask why he thinks deafness is so incurable. ![]() Also....... we look forward to the pleasure of meeting Dr. Wilde. He is the father of the famous Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, humorist, and poet, Oscar Wilde (d. 1900). Oscar almost joined our club by going deaf, but in one ear only. Page 8.
____________________________________________ ![]() Beethoven's Non-Cures
If Guinness had a classification for non-cures, Beethoven would be way on top. "Some medical jackass prescribed tea to cure my deafness". Ludwig van Beethoven The cause of his deafness remains uncertain. He went through many doctors and treatments, from leeches to toxic plants to almond oil ear plugs. When in his fifties, his surgeon friend, Dr. Aloys Weissenbach treated Beethoven's deafness with-------- ------hot and cold baths, teas, diuretics, emetics, endocrenes, vibration, galvanism, noisings, sweatings, nebulizings, tourniquets, dieting, vitamins, herbs, exercising, irrigations, chiropractics, fasting, smoke steaming, acupressure, and injecting chemicals into the auditory meatus -----among still more things ------accomplishing nothing. Happy ending: Beethoven got cured in the afterlife. See next column. ![]() But Poor Dr. Weissenbach !!.............
He was a real MD, not a medical crackpot, and on the side he was a poet and a serious music composer...….. ---but (OMG!) he eventually became deaf himself !!! And he stayed that way -----his bulging portfolio of deafness cures didn't help him either. ![]() Deafness Cured by
Power Dives !! These cures were news for 30 years, to about 1949. The New York Times ( on 12/29/1924 ) reported an attempt by the US Army Air Corps to cure deafness ----via a 10,000 ft. power dive (almost 2 miles straight down). The "patient" was Joseph Kling, a 28 year old garment worker from Brooklyn, NY, who "needed hearing to join the army". We found nothing in the Times archives on what happened to his deafness -----nor (of greater concern) on what happened to him. The Silent Worker, a Deaf Community publication , said much later that nobody ever got cured in this. It added that several actually died in these attempts (but no details or sources were offered). The one below is the only one we've heard of. _______________________________________________________________ Here's from the New York Times, November 2, 1925.
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What ?!? OMG, Here Comes a Deafness Epidemic![]() Viagra, the most popular erectile-dysfunction (ED) drug, can make men deaf !! So can those other PDE-5 inhibitor drugs for ED ----Levitra, Ciallis, etc. Five billion dollars of these drugs are sold annually !
OMG, HERE COMES AN EPIDEMIC !! Read about it here: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/05May/Pages/viagra-linked-to-hearing-loss.aspx ________________________________________________________ MEET SOME RELIGIOUS TROUBLEMAKERS ![]() ACCORDING to Rabbi ben Dahabi...............
The great Talmudic Rabbi, Yoykhannon (Johanan) ben Dahabi provided this divinely inspired fact: "If a child is born deaf, it's because the parents were talking to each other at the moment of conception". He had a menu of situations during sex by parents that would cause different physical disabilities in the child. He managed to get all that twaddle into the Babylonian Talmud (see Nedarim 20b). Sources: Jewcy.com, and Born to Kvetch, Michael Wax, St. Martins Press ~~~~~~ According to St. Augustine...................![]() St. Augustine (d. 430 AD) unfortunately stuck his nose into this too. He is said to have preached that a child born deaf, or otherwise not normal, was made that way to reflect the sins of one or both parents. He surely damaged many lives with that.
Many families covered their shame by mistreating, hiding, and rejecting disabled children. Well-to-do families banished them to convents and monasteries. Others abandoned them at churches, or sent them to almshouses, prisons, hospitals, colonies, or charitable institutions. As if this troublemaker didn't do enough damage, he went on to say that sacraments and redemption of the Catholic Church were denied to deaf people. That was based on his unimaginative reading of St. Paul in Romans 10:17: Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. (There's a similar statement in Romans 10:14. Actually, these statements certainly referred to acceptance and belief, not to human hearing.) In fairness to the Saint, it is not certain that he actually said or believed any of this ----it's attributed to him only in the writings of others. ~~~~~ ![]() Another troublemaker...........
........was John Calvin (d.1564) ----- lawyer, pastor, and controversial religious theologian, the founder of Calvinism. From his brain came the belief that certain people are selected by God before birth, to be denied salvation after death. Those selected are marked with physical and mental disabilities, such as lameness and deafness, as a warning to others. What those rejected had done wrong before they even existed, we have no idea. Ask him. ~~~~~ ![]() Martin Luther (d. 1546), directed his fury at the feeble minded, believing them infested with Satan. That surely included deaf people of his time. He wrote that feeble minded children should be drowned as their souls were corrupted or missing. (We wonder how many actually were, thanks to him).
Despite that extreme vileness, he read St. Paul (Romans 10:17) correctly. He wrote that "to the word of God, nothing is deaf", that deafness referred only to "inward ears", to belief within the mind. ~~~~~ The four above, and others with their weird religious theories, can be thanked for many lives damaged. Also for what even to this very day survives, particularly in East European culture (and surely in some others as well) -----that disabled children are a divine punishment, and a shame upon the family. Desperately Seeking a Deafness Cure?![]() Ever considered getting hit by lightning? Wait please. Don't go away. This is not a joke !!
That lamp on your desk uses 125 volts and just one ampere of current. Whereas...…... ……...a lightning bolt discharges a billion volts and a quarter-million amperes into the earth in a few thousandths of a second. The air around the bolt can be as hot as 56,000 degrees F (5 times hotter than the sun). The chances of you getting hit are sixty times better than winning the state lottery ------much better if you hang out on a golf course with a metal-tipped umbrella during a thunderstorm. (But the fatality rate is only 20 percent.) Gary Lockhart, in his Electrical Healing and the Violet Ray, tells of a farmer profoundly deaf 11 years, who got zonked by lightning in 1980 and was fully cured of deafness -----with a bonus: all the hair grew back on his bald spot. Not convinced? Keep reading ............ ~~~~~~ POOF!! 60 Years of Deafness Gone in an Instant !! Deaf sixty years and fully cured by a thunderbolt in a split second!! This is NOT from the cornball supermarket taboid National Enquirer. It's from the no-hysteria, no-sensationalism, no-baloney New York Times (July 15, 1911) -----so it must be absolutely true. Who cares about her house? She recovered her hearing !!! Read it below: And here's another cure 19 years earlier (June 10, 1892) from the very reliable Philadelphia Record. Here, Mr. S.N. Worst was cured of long-term "stone deafness".
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Or if lightning isn't your cup of tea...…….....……. "At Last Medical Science Has Conquered Deafness" Quoting from the ad (below), Dr. G.F. Webb's "Galvanic Electro Medical Harness .........a triumph of skill", is "curing thousands all over the land". Wear it "for a few hours daily" either in daytime or while sleeping, "until a cure is obtained". "It cures all deafness, including that caused by youthful indiscretions." (Youthful indiscretions??? Grandpa said that naughty habit makes boys blind. Huh, WHAT ?!?! It makes them DEAF, too? OMG !!) ![]() "Incurable"? Try this !
Here's a similar marvel from a Dr. Huber in New York City, shown with "ear electrodes" in place ----to cure "any deafness pronounced incurable". The battery is dry-cell, the voltage low, and the alternating frequency is 65 cps. It sold for under $10 (about $240 in today's money), plus the cost of periodic battery replacement. For further information, go to: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthpicturegalleries/9519906/Cocaine-tooth-drops-morphine-teething-syrup-and-other-Victorian-quack-cures.html?frame=2328295 ________________________________________________________________ For 90% of All Deafness Types, Try...............
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Cure Yourself With
Dr. Coutant's Home Treatment Dr. George E. Coutant, MD of New York City, advertised his Coutant Home Treatment Cure for Deafness in the 1890s and for almost 30 years after, in full-page ads and through a scholarly 32-page booklet. He claimed a 95% cure-rate. His kit contained a glass nasal douche, tablets for making douching and gargling solutions, a salve for your mastoid bones, and varieties of pills. At the top is his hi-tech "Kotalizer", a metal nasal inhaler (stuffed with mustard oil like the Actina, above, plus camphor and whatnot). If no result, you were urged to continue purchasing his kits until cured. They went for $10 ($275 today) or $5, or finally $3, depending on how much of a push you needed to renew. ________________________ |
The Courant Home Treatment Cure for Deafness and Tinnitus, Includes the "Kotalizer"
("Kotalizer" is the doc's catch-word for catalyzer, to accelerate a reaction)
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OH, BTW...... You've surely noticed in our articles, that money back then was worth much more than it is today (e.g. that $10 for Dr. Courant's miracle cure in the 1890s is like $275 today). It's ongoing. Every dollar in your pocket today will be worth less a year from now. How come? Read
The Inflation Swindle by Ernest J. Oppenheimer, Prentice Hall, 1977.
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The Inflation Swindle by Ernest J. Oppenheimer, Prentice Hall, 1977.
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For Less Fuss, Try Dr. Coffee's Single-Substance Cure

Now if you don't want to choke on pills or stick applicators up your nose, consider Dr. William O. Coffee's single-substance cure for deafness, his Ointment #48.
Merely apply a small glob twice daily into each nostril and inhale deeply until consumed. Repeat until your deafness is gone. Simple?
Merely apply a small glob twice daily into each nostril and inhale deeply until consumed. Repeat until your deafness is gone. Simple?

Meet Dr. Coffee. He was a midwest opthamologist
of dubious credentials, who nevertheless created salves and such to cure ocular diseases.
As his stuff was peddled for 45 years (1882 - 1927), he must have cured a lot of blindness.
To spread his cures more liberally, he threw in a few ointments for other ills, including this "Prescription No. 48 Treatment for Deafness".
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How About Ozone ?
Meet Dr. Coffee. He was a midwest opthamologist
of dubious credentials, who nevertheless created salves and such to cure ocular diseases.
As his stuff was peddled for 45 years (1882 - 1927), he must have cured a lot of blindness.
To spread his cures more liberally, he threw in a few ointments for other ills, including this "Prescription No. 48 Treatment for Deafness".
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How About Ozone ?

You've heard of "ozone", the air with three atoms of oxygen in its molecule, instead of just two. This Canadian product (from early last century) offered ozone to assist in curing deafness and some other maladies.
What's in the box? Probably a
sort of atomizer to spray the compressed air into your mouth or up your nose.
Whoever dreamed this up, may have been a clairvoyant. Over 100 years later, it was discovered that ozone (applied as described in the link below) had a 77% rate in curing sudden sensorineural deafness.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18925995
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What's in the box? Probably a
sort of atomizer to spray the compressed air into your mouth or up your nose.
Whoever dreamed this up, may have been a clairvoyant. Over 100 years later, it was discovered that ozone (applied as described in the link below) had a 77% rate in curing sudden sensorineural deafness.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18925995
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Have You Tried Dr. Lensky's
Hearium Gamma-Radiation Cure?
Radiation was a fascination when radium was discovered in 1898.
In the early 1920's, a Dr. Charles Lensky of
St. Louis manufactured his " Radiation Ear" for the cure of deafness. It was a tube containing a radio-active substance, to be held against the ear.
Dr. Lensky claimed it cured deafness via gamma-radiation from "Hearium".
We don't see Hearium in the Periodic Table of Elements. Maybe the name was a sales gimmick. It might have been a blob of clay-like substance containing radium salts, or else it was something he dug up in his back yard. Whatever, according to Dr. Lensky, it worked ----it cured deafness.!!
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Hearium Gamma-Radiation Cure?
Radiation was a fascination when radium was discovered in 1898.
In the early 1920's, a Dr. Charles Lensky of
St. Louis manufactured his " Radiation Ear" for the cure of deafness. It was a tube containing a radio-active substance, to be held against the ear.
Dr. Lensky claimed it cured deafness via gamma-radiation from "Hearium".
We don't see Hearium in the Periodic Table of Elements. Maybe the name was a sales gimmick. It might have been a blob of clay-like substance containing radium salts, or else it was something he dug up in his back yard. Whatever, according to Dr. Lensky, it worked ----it cured deafness.!!
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Can You Wait 21 Days?
Hearing Rescue capsules contain a host of wonder supplements and vitamins to do the job it advertises. Amazon sells it. Read their 5-star reviews.
But if you're in a hurry, read further down >>>>>
Hearing Rescue capsules contain a host of wonder supplements and vitamins to do the job it advertises. Amazon sells it. Read their 5-star reviews.
But if you're in a hurry, read further down >>>>>

Crystal Clear Hearing in 17 Days !!
The 200-year old father-to-son Amish secret for turning deafness into "crystal clear" hearing in 17 days, is revealed NOW in this e~Book.
45,000 successful cures are claimed to stand behind it. The priceless secret is yours for 50% off, or $39.95. Type "AMISH 17-DAY CURE" into Google. Do it NOW. Don't let this get away !!
The 200-year old father-to-son Amish secret for turning deafness into "crystal clear" hearing in 17 days, is revealed NOW in this e~Book.
45,000 successful cures are claimed to stand behind it. The priceless secret is yours for 50% off, or $39.95. Type "AMISH 17-DAY CURE" into Google. Do it NOW. Don't let this get away !!

Can't Wait ? Only 14 Days BY THIS !!
This Navajo Medicine Man's cure from over 100 years ago is revealed in this amazing book. Join the claimed 33,477 people whose hearing was restored in just 14 days! Watch this captioned lecture. The speaker tells how awful it is not to hear, and how the Navajo secret will restore your hearing for a mere $39.95. Don't miss this !!
http://navajohearingfix.com/
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This Navajo Medicine Man's cure from over 100 years ago is revealed in this amazing book. Join the claimed 33,477 people whose hearing was restored in just 14 days! Watch this captioned lecture. The speaker tells how awful it is not to hear, and how the Navajo secret will restore your hearing for a mere $39.95. Don't miss this !!
http://navajohearingfix.com/
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TINNITUS? New Pill Will Cure It In Just Three Weeks !!
Tinnitus was described 8,000 years ago on Egyptian papyrus, and again on an Assyrian clay tablet from 700 BC. Today, it's still not fully understood and there's no sure cure.........
....but WAIT! This new pill new can do it in 3 weeks!
Don't wait ----go here:
http://silencecompletetruth.com/
Tinnitus was described 8,000 years ago on Egyptian papyrus, and again on an Assyrian clay tablet from 700 BC. Today, it's still not fully understood and there's no sure cure.........
....but WAIT! This new pill new can do it in 3 weeks!
Don't wait ----go here:
http://silencecompletetruth.com/
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Meet Dr. Ignoramus

Dr. Jean-Marc Itard, the eminent French surgeon, founded otolaryngology, discovered Tourette’s Syndrome, co-discovered Itard-Cholewa’s Syndrome, invented the Eustachian catheter, etc.
Impressive. However, this glory-seeking medical ignoramus, while resident physician at
The National Institute for Deaf Mutes in Paris in the lower 19th Century, performed a long series of crackpot experiments on over 125 students to cure their deafness. He managed to seriously infect most of them, burn and mutilate ears, crack some skulls (with a hammer whack on the mastoid bone), and kill one of them ----restoring no one's hearing. You won’t see the gory details in Wikipedia. Read pp. 132ff in When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf, by Harlan Lane (PB, 1989, Vintage).
Quoting Dr. Itard from the same book after he finally threw in the towel:
"Medicine does not work on the dead, and as far as I am concerned the ear is dead in the deaf mute. There is nothing for science to do about it".
He also flopped in applying his own teaching methods to provide speech to the deaf students. And in 40 years at that school, he never learned to sign.
There's much to learn about this strange character in the drama of Deaf Culture history.
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Meet Some More of Them
There's a 22-page collection of attempts to cure deafness at that time, by various other medical ignoramuses. It's a serious academic presentation that reads almost like a novel. If you're the type that peeks at the end of a novel to learn what happened, we'll do it for you now. The final sentence on the last page says, "....congenital deafness cannot be cured". Sorry, folks. (You would have reached the same opinion 12 pages earlier).
You can read the whole thing here:
http://aladinrc.wrlc.org/handle/1961/10234?show=full
Click on "OUTPUT. PDF" near bottom, under FILES.
UPDATE (May, 2017) ---sorry, some clod took it down.
Meet another Dr. Ignoramus on our Page 6, MacLeod Yearsly, FRCS.
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Impressive. However, this glory-seeking medical ignoramus, while resident physician at
The National Institute for Deaf Mutes in Paris in the lower 19th Century, performed a long series of crackpot experiments on over 125 students to cure their deafness. He managed to seriously infect most of them, burn and mutilate ears, crack some skulls (with a hammer whack on the mastoid bone), and kill one of them ----restoring no one's hearing. You won’t see the gory details in Wikipedia. Read pp. 132ff in When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf, by Harlan Lane (PB, 1989, Vintage).
Quoting Dr. Itard from the same book after he finally threw in the towel:
"Medicine does not work on the dead, and as far as I am concerned the ear is dead in the deaf mute. There is nothing for science to do about it".
He also flopped in applying his own teaching methods to provide speech to the deaf students. And in 40 years at that school, he never learned to sign.
There's much to learn about this strange character in the drama of Deaf Culture history.
______________________________________________________________
Meet Some More of Them
There's a 22-page collection of attempts to cure deafness at that time, by various other medical ignoramuses. It's a serious academic presentation that reads almost like a novel. If you're the type that peeks at the end of a novel to learn what happened, we'll do it for you now. The final sentence on the last page says, "....congenital deafness cannot be cured". Sorry, folks. (You would have reached the same opinion 12 pages earlier).
You can read the whole thing here:
http://aladinrc.wrlc.org/handle/1961/10234?show=full
Click on "OUTPUT. PDF" near bottom, under FILES.
UPDATE (May, 2017) ---sorry, some clod took it down.
Meet another Dr. Ignoramus on our Page 6, MacLeod Yearsly, FRCS.
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(BELOW) From newspaper classifieds, ca. 1900. On requesting his "book of proofs", be sure to apply to "F.Hiscox only" (not just plain old
"F. Hiscox" ) as directed in his ad. He has several competitors in that 853 Broadway building. He alone wants the honor of curing your deafness and tinnitus with his amazing "Invisible Tubular Cushions". ( We are still trying to find out what a "tubular cushion" was).
"F. Hiscox" ) as directed in his ad. He has several competitors in that 853 Broadway building. He alone wants the honor of curing your deafness and tinnitus with his amazing "Invisible Tubular Cushions". ( We are still trying to find out what a "tubular cushion" was).
Mr. Hiscox found someone to unscramble his sloppy home-made ad, above, for the bit less sloppy one below, to include in a prestigious periodical for physicians.
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BELOW, 1899) Mr.Tindall, who "tried every known treatment and device
without help", offers to cure your deafness with the same "Galvanic Electricity" that he cured himself with. For information, be sure to send that requested postage stamp with your address. Otherwise, he won't send you anything and you'll remain deaf and "most frantic with head noises".
BELOW, 1899) Mr.Tindall, who "tried every known treatment and device
without help", offers to cure your deafness with the same "Galvanic Electricity" that he cured himself with. For information, be sure to send that requested postage stamp with your address. Otherwise, he won't send you anything and you'll remain deaf and "most frantic with head noises".
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Dr. Prager's
Monster Boombox
Deafness due to stiffness of the inner ear bones can be cured by exercising the eardrums, which shakes up the ear bones, said
Dr. J. B. Prager.
His monster boom box from the 1930's bombards the patient's earphones with sounds of screaming fire engines, roaring thunder, dynamite explosions, and crashing ocean waves. OMG, what a racket !!
Must have produced a lot of migraines.
Monster Boombox
Deafness due to stiffness of the inner ear bones can be cured by exercising the eardrums, which shakes up the ear bones, said
Dr. J. B. Prager.
His monster boom box from the 1930's bombards the patient's earphones with sounds of screaming fire engines, roaring thunder, dynamite explosions, and crashing ocean waves. OMG, what a racket !!
Must have produced a lot of migraines.

Was it really successful? We can't find anything further on this. It may have inspired those ghetto-blasting boom boxes that arrived in the 1960's, keeping the whole neighborhood (except the D/deaf people) awake at night.
A device 20 years earlier, the De-A-Fone (read "deaf-phone") by the Deafone Company, was a racket-maker on the same principle.
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A device 20 years earlier, the De-A-Fone (read "deaf-phone") by the Deafone Company, was a racket-maker on the same principle.
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Improving hearing by exercising the inner ear bones, was done 30 or 40 years earlier with this pretty-looking thing, the Vibraphone. Also, it treated tinnitus by over-whelming the tinnitus tones.
Various tones of adjustable loudness were generated in the headset by electrically vibrating the body of a violin.
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Various tones of adjustable loudness were generated in the headset by electrically vibrating the body of a violin.
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How Did These Three Deaf Geniuses Join Our Club?
Ever heard of (Oh my God!) neurolabyrinthitis, ostospongiose, and Vogt-Kayanagi-Harada Syndrome?
Ever heard of (Oh my God!) neurolabyrinthitis, ostospongiose, and Vogt-Kayanagi-Harada Syndrome?
Goya (self-portrait at left) holds the record for possible causes of his deafness. We will never know. Why not? At a disinterment for another autopsy, it was discovered that someone (probably a medical student) had stolen his head. It's on Page 15.
Beethoven (center) comes in next ----with quite a load, too. We still don't know for sure. (His head was there but one of the pathologists stole his ear bones to keep as souvenirs, thus preventing any further deafness autopsies). See Page 13.
For Edison, it was quite simple. See Page 11.
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Beethoven (center) comes in next ----with quite a load, too. We still don't know for sure. (His head was there but one of the pathologists stole his ear bones to keep as souvenirs, thus preventing any further deafness autopsies). See Page 13.
For Edison, it was quite simple. See Page 11.
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"Yuppie Deafness" A few decades ago, impulsive young professional people ("yuppies"), awakened by their cordless phones, grabbed for the phone. The groggy (or drunk) yuppy punctured his/her eardrum with the stiff wire antenna (often with the padded tip missing by sloppy handling). Eardrums punctured from this were common enough to earn the unofficial medical term, "yuppie deafness".
Advantages of Deafness --an ongoing collection
Oh yes, it does have its advantages !
Oh yes, it does have its advantages !

Exerpt from a letter to the Editor, NY Times, 12/28/05
"[Your article on our city's noise problem] did not mention a rampant source of intense noise, snoring. The current world snoring record is 90 deciBels. This is much louder than standing next to a diesel bus engine. ....... Not only is this disruptive for next-door residents, but also for spouses, bed mates, and relationships."
Note: The newest reported snoring record is 102 dB. Bass notes of that power, can make an empty wine glass walk off a table six feet away. It has been reported that very loud snoring can make a closed window shade suddenly snap up with a sharp bang, scaring the holy wits out of hearing sleepers. Remember, normal hearing is the only sense that does not shut off completely during sleep.
"[ My snoring ] could make a monastery sound like a factory."
Michael McGirr in his book , "Snooze" (Pegasus Books) ----he's an ex-priest who lived in a monastery and kept the whole place awake at night.
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From the Mouths of a Few Great Minds
"[Your article on our city's noise problem] did not mention a rampant source of intense noise, snoring. The current world snoring record is 90 deciBels. This is much louder than standing next to a diesel bus engine. ....... Not only is this disruptive for next-door residents, but also for spouses, bed mates, and relationships."
Note: The newest reported snoring record is 102 dB. Bass notes of that power, can make an empty wine glass walk off a table six feet away. It has been reported that very loud snoring can make a closed window shade suddenly snap up with a sharp bang, scaring the holy wits out of hearing sleepers. Remember, normal hearing is the only sense that does not shut off completely during sleep.
"[ My snoring ] could make a monastery sound like a factory."
Michael McGirr in his book , "Snooze" (Pegasus Books) ----he's an ex-priest who lived in a monastery and kept the whole place awake at night.
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From the Mouths of a Few Great Minds
"Silence is the true friend "I wash my hands of those
who never betrays". who consider silence to
Confucius (Kong Qiu) be ignorance". Khalil Gibrand
(450 BC)
who never betrays". who consider silence to
Confucius (Kong Qiu) be ignorance". Khalil Gibrand
(450 BC)
"Silence is deep as "Silence is more musical "The song heard is eternity; speech is than any song". sweet; the unheard
as shallow as time". Christina Rosetti song is sweeter" Thomas Carlyle John Keats
as shallow as time". Christina Rosetti song is sweeter" Thomas Carlyle John Keats
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(LEFT) "Blow your nose and sound like a trombone". (From the Johnson-Smith novelties catalog).
"What is worse than a clarinet? Answer: Two clarinets". Ambrose Bierce
"Don't talk except to improve the silence". Old Vermont Proverb
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Excerpt, letter from an MD to the Editor, New York Times, 12/5/02---
"........my wife and I moved to Greenwich Village ...... there's no other place we'd rather inhabit. Then we discovered motorcycles. At 2 in the morning,
4 in the morning ---on some nights every 15 minutes--- a shattering jackhammer din blasts past our window. ... [After they stop at ] the next intersection, the audible testosterone storm is repeated, resurging block after block after block ----you're left a choice: leave town or sleep by bits".
(Historical note: Roman law included ordinances against the clatter of chariot wheels on cobbled pavement at night. Some residential areas in medieval Europe kept roads covered with straw to lessen the nighttime noise of carriages.)
~~~~
Excerpt from a letter to the Editor, Our Town (New York City, 11/06)
"What is the nature of the .....craft that ply the East River driven by racing engines that sound like a thundering squadron of PT boats? Nothing produces a comparable roar that echoes off buildings on both sides of the river, and lingers long after the craft is gone. How can one sleep here?".
~~~~
A computer programming firm was located in the old ex-Lincoln Hotel in New York City. Moderate rent, but scary: remnants of gas lamp piping; staircase banisters in big swirls of black cast iron; doors ten feet high; gloomy and shadowy hallways painted dull green. It had opened several years after Lincoln's assasination.
Eight female employees-- 6 hearing and 2 deaf, were constructing massive spreadsheets there for a public school system. Their contract had a stiff lateness penalty; they were far behind and in a panic. To catch up, time-and-half was offered for overnight shifts. But no takers. Why not?
A lawyer neighbor had advised them not to stay late. He swore he sometimes hears faint voices coming out of the walls at night and was quite unnerved by it.
A frightened night-shift security guard quit after hearing locked doors open and close on floors dark and empty of people. And a woman swore she heard the flush of an old-fashioned gravity toilet, while passing a locked door, originally a hall lavatory stripped of plumbing and sealed many decades ago.
In short, the place was haunted.
The overnight shift offer went up to double-time plus breakfast and cabs. The two deaf employees took it. The whole hearing bunch cleared out of there in a fright before the early winter darkness. The deaf couple cleaned
up on the overtime, had superb free breakfasts, and commuted royally
--------and didn't mind any "faint voices coming out of the walls at night".
~~~~~
"....if noise is the signature tune of the world, silence is the music of the other world. Silence is the closest thing we know to the harmony of the spheres ..... In silence .... it seems as if all the windows of the world are thrown open and everything is clear as a morning after rain." Pico Iyer, Essayist
"What is worse than a clarinet? Answer: Two clarinets". Ambrose Bierce
"Don't talk except to improve the silence". Old Vermont Proverb
~~~~
Excerpt, letter from an MD to the Editor, New York Times, 12/5/02---
"........my wife and I moved to Greenwich Village ...... there's no other place we'd rather inhabit. Then we discovered motorcycles. At 2 in the morning,
4 in the morning ---on some nights every 15 minutes--- a shattering jackhammer din blasts past our window. ... [After they stop at ] the next intersection, the audible testosterone storm is repeated, resurging block after block after block ----you're left a choice: leave town or sleep by bits".
(Historical note: Roman law included ordinances against the clatter of chariot wheels on cobbled pavement at night. Some residential areas in medieval Europe kept roads covered with straw to lessen the nighttime noise of carriages.)
~~~~
Excerpt from a letter to the Editor, Our Town (New York City, 11/06)
"What is the nature of the .....craft that ply the East River driven by racing engines that sound like a thundering squadron of PT boats? Nothing produces a comparable roar that echoes off buildings on both sides of the river, and lingers long after the craft is gone. How can one sleep here?".
~~~~
A computer programming firm was located in the old ex-Lincoln Hotel in New York City. Moderate rent, but scary: remnants of gas lamp piping; staircase banisters in big swirls of black cast iron; doors ten feet high; gloomy and shadowy hallways painted dull green. It had opened several years after Lincoln's assasination.
Eight female employees-- 6 hearing and 2 deaf, were constructing massive spreadsheets there for a public school system. Their contract had a stiff lateness penalty; they were far behind and in a panic. To catch up, time-and-half was offered for overnight shifts. But no takers. Why not?
A lawyer neighbor had advised them not to stay late. He swore he sometimes hears faint voices coming out of the walls at night and was quite unnerved by it.
A frightened night-shift security guard quit after hearing locked doors open and close on floors dark and empty of people. And a woman swore she heard the flush of an old-fashioned gravity toilet, while passing a locked door, originally a hall lavatory stripped of plumbing and sealed many decades ago.
In short, the place was haunted.
The overnight shift offer went up to double-time plus breakfast and cabs. The two deaf employees took it. The whole hearing bunch cleared out of there in a fright before the early winter darkness. The deaf couple cleaned
up on the overtime, had superb free breakfasts, and commuted royally
--------and didn't mind any "faint voices coming out of the walls at night".
~~~~~
"....if noise is the signature tune of the world, silence is the music of the other world. Silence is the closest thing we know to the harmony of the spheres ..... In silence .... it seems as if all the windows of the world are thrown open and everything is clear as a morning after rain." Pico Iyer, Essayist

~~~~~
"When chaos is the god of an era, clamorous music is the deity's
chief instrument".
Ben Okri, Nigerian Novelist
~~~~~
311 is the non-emergency number for complaints and other matters related to New York City. It gets fifty thousand (50,000) calls per day. The number one complaint: noise.
~~~~~
"When chaos is the god of an era, clamorous music is the deity's
chief instrument".
Ben Okri, Nigerian Novelist
~~~~~
311 is the non-emergency number for complaints and other matters related to New York City. It gets fifty thousand (50,000) calls per day. The number one complaint: noise.
~~~~~

The Friendly Side
of Audism
Our driver friend (with no GPS), his wife, and her friend, all Deaf, got hopelessly lost looking for Solberg Airport in New Jersey. They asked instructions of a group of tough-looking motor-bikers, resting on the grass and singing uproariously. One reluctantly struggled up and walked over to them. He gave directions in the usual string of mumbles, pointings, and arm-swings. Our friend told him, in words and gestures, “Wait. Say again please. We are Deaf. We read lips. Talk slow.”
The biker’s jaw dropped. His stunned stare went face to face "WHAT....!!? Deaf? No hear? All three? Oh…..oh.... ohhhhhhhhhhh !" He swung toward the others, yelling excitedly and rapidly stabbing his ear. Several rose up.
A roaring royal motorcycle escort, an pointed “V’ of three bikes in front, two at the rear edges and one on the tail, took them to the airport on a long and convoluted route. On arrival, the bikers swung around back in a roar of engines, blasts of exhausts, high arm waves, and broad smiles.
That evening, our friend told us that if they weren't Deaf, they'd still be looking for Solberg Airport.
______________________________________________________________
PATERNAL AUDISM GOING TOO FAR
The friendly audism, above is paternal audism, and like everything else, it can go too far, as in this example ------- A middle-aged reader told us she and her 16-year old daughter (both Deaf) were stuck at the end of an enormous supermarket checkout line during the pandemic buying craze in March, 2020. She noticed some employees removing seniors from the rear of the line but was uncertain why. When their ASL was noticed, they too were removed and escorted to the front of the line, jumping several hundred people. She felt embarrassed and would not have accepted if she realized in time what was happening.
of Audism
Our driver friend (with no GPS), his wife, and her friend, all Deaf, got hopelessly lost looking for Solberg Airport in New Jersey. They asked instructions of a group of tough-looking motor-bikers, resting on the grass and singing uproariously. One reluctantly struggled up and walked over to them. He gave directions in the usual string of mumbles, pointings, and arm-swings. Our friend told him, in words and gestures, “Wait. Say again please. We are Deaf. We read lips. Talk slow.”
The biker’s jaw dropped. His stunned stare went face to face "WHAT....!!? Deaf? No hear? All three? Oh…..oh.... ohhhhhhhhhhh !" He swung toward the others, yelling excitedly and rapidly stabbing his ear. Several rose up.
A roaring royal motorcycle escort, an pointed “V’ of three bikes in front, two at the rear edges and one on the tail, took them to the airport on a long and convoluted route. On arrival, the bikers swung around back in a roar of engines, blasts of exhausts, high arm waves, and broad smiles.
That evening, our friend told us that if they weren't Deaf, they'd still be looking for Solberg Airport.
______________________________________________________________
PATERNAL AUDISM GOING TOO FAR
The friendly audism, above is paternal audism, and like everything else, it can go too far, as in this example ------- A middle-aged reader told us she and her 16-year old daughter (both Deaf) were stuck at the end of an enormous supermarket checkout line during the pandemic buying craze in March, 2020. She noticed some employees removing seniors from the rear of the line but was uncertain why. When their ASL was noticed, they too were removed and escorted to the front of the line, jumping several hundred people. She felt embarrassed and would not have accepted if she realized in time what was happening.