moved by the method
recommended, or by using a narrow slip of clean white blotting-paper.
All such cases should be very speedily referred to a physician, and
the use of needles or other instruments should not be attempted by a
layman, lest permanent damage be done to the cornea and opacity
result. Such procedures are, of course, appropriate for an oculist,
but when it is impossible to secure medical aid for days it can be
attempted without much fear, if done carefully, as more harm will
result if the offending body is left in place. It is surprising to see
what a hole in the surface of the eye will fill up in a few days. If
the foreign body has caused a good deal of irritation before its
removal, it is best to drop into the eye a solution of boric acid (ten
grains to the ounce of water) four times daily.

=FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EAR.=--Foreign bodies, as buttons, pebbles,
beans, cherry stones, coffee, etc., are frequently placed in the ear
by children, and insects sometimes find their way into the ear passage
and create tremendous distress by their struggles. Smooth,
nonirritating bodies, as buttons, pebbles, etc., do no particular harm
for a long time, and may remain unnoticed for years. But the most
serious damage not infrequently results from unskillful attempts at
their removal by persons (even physicians unused to instrumental work
on the ear) who are driven to immediate and violent action on the
false supposition that instant interference is called for. Insects, it
is true, should be killed without delay by dropping into the ear sweet
oil, castor, linseed, or machine oil or glycerin, or even water, if
the others are not at hand, and then the insect should be removed in
half an hour by syringing as recommended for wax (Vol. II, p. 35).

To remove solid bodies, turn the ear containing the body downward,
pull it outward and backward, and rub the skin just in front of the
opening into the ear with the other hand, and the object may fall out.

Failing in this, syringing with warm water, as for removal of wax,
while the patient is sitting, may prove successful. The essentials of
treatment then consist, first, in keeping cool; then in killing
insects by dropping oil or water into the ear, and, if syringing
proves ineffective, in using no instrumental methods in an attempt to
remove the foreign body, but in awaiting such time as skilled medical
services can be obtained. If beans or seeds are not washed out by
syringin