Sabatier speaks of an abscess of the brain caused by a ball of paper in the ear; and it is quite common for persons in the habit of using a tampon of cotton in the meatus to mistake the deep entrance of this substance for functional derangement, and many cases of temporary deafness are simply due to forgetfulness of the cause.

A strange case is reported in a girl of fourteen, who lost her tympanum from a profuse otorrhea, and who substituted an artificial tympanum which was, in its turn, lost by deep penetration, causing augmentation of the symptoms, of the cause of which the patient herself seemed unaware.

Sometimes artificial otoliths are produced by the insufflation of various powders which become agglutinated, and are veritable foreign bodies.

Holman tells of a negro, aged thirty-five, whose wife poured molten pewter in his ear while asleep.

It was removed, but total deafness was the result.
Alley mentions a New Orleans wharf laborer, in whose ear was poured some molten lead; seventeen months afterward the lead was still occupying the external auditory meatus.