In 75 cases collected by Mayer, and cited by Poulet (whose work on "Foreign Bodies" is the most extensive in existence), death as a consequence of meningitis was found in three.
Fleury de Clermont mentions a woman of twenty-five who consulted him for removal of a pin which was in her right ear.

Vain attempts by some of her lay-friends to extract the pin had only made matters worse.

The pin was directed transversely, and its middle part touched the membrane tympanum.

The mere touching of the pin caused the woman intense pain; even after etherization it was necessary to construct a special instrument to extract it.

She suffered intense cephalalgia and other signs of meningitis; despite vigorous treatment she lost consciousness and died shortly after the operation.
Winterbotham reports an instance in which a cherry-stone was removed from the meatus auditorius after lodgment of upward of sixty years.
Marchal de Calvi mentions intermittent deafness for forty years, caused by the lodgment of a small foreign body in the auditory canal.