本稿は、スピーチコミュニケーションのメタファ分析における「メタファグラム」(造語)に関連し、話者やスピーチを特定するための技術となる「比喩紋」の可能性を考察するものである。スピーチにおける概念メタファの時系列的な表出傾向の推移は、メンタルディスタンス分析によって描写できることが分かっている。ここでの議論は次の２点に絞られる。まず、(1)時系列的な推移状況を、視覚性に富む「メタファグラム」でとらえたとき、その特徴が、話者を特定しうるほどの有意性を持つのかということ。そして、(2)メタファグラムが時系列的特徴を示すとすれば、それは具体的にどのようなものなのかという疑問である。本稿では、先行研究で考察された２人の発表者による６本のスピーチを再検証の素材とし、メタファグラムを構成する個々の要素について、より詳細な統計分析を施して考察を進めた。援用したのは、相関分析、時系列分析、定常化、自己相関分析、そして交差相関分析である。その結果、得られたメタファグラムには、それだけで人物の特定を実証しうるほど統計的に有意な相関性はみられなかった。しかしその一方、メタファグラムによって記録される各メタファ要素の関連性に、隠された「時系列的周期性」が存在することが明らかになった。

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The patency of the hiatus semilunaris is essential for a cure of sinusitis in children. To open the closed hiatus, irrigation therapy is one of the best conservative measures.
The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of a mixture of antibiotics and steroid in irrigation therapy for chronicsinusitis. Forty nine children with chronic sinusitis were divided into two groups, accrding to the kind of the drug administered, that is, the patients of one group were administerd with the mixture of antibiotics and steroid after each irrigation, the patients of the other group were treated with simple irrigation only. After the treatments, the condition of the hiatus, the cure rate and the period required for cure were compared. Furthermore, the resistance during the antral irrigation was used as an index determining the degree of opening of the hiatus.
The results obtained from this study were as follows:
1) The average cure rate in the irrigation therapy was 35%.
2) The difference was not significant between the two groups in the rate of improved resistance and the cure of sinusitis.
3) The resistance at the last irrigation was minimal in all the cured cases.
4) The maximum and average frequency of irrigation were 15 and 5.2 times respectively, and in 90% of the cured cases the number of the irrigation therapy was less than 10.
From the above results, it was suggested that the topical administration of the mixture once a week could not improve the disease considerably. In addition, the standard number of irrigation seemed to be 10 times in order to determine the usefulness of the irrigation therapy.

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In the present study, using radioisotope we observed functionally the changes in submucosal microvascular permeability of the middle ear and response to histamine after occlusion of the eustachian tube in rabbits with experimentally induced otitis media with effusion. Results obtained were compared with results of histopathological study performed simultaneously.
As experimental animals 22 adult rabbits were used. Thirteen of these animals were subjected to functional study by use of radioisotope and 9 animals to histopathological study. Otitis media with effusion was induced by pretreating the animals with an insertion of laminalia prepared in wedge form into the pharyngeal orifice of the eustachian tube to occlude it. At 1, 7 and 14 days after the treatment animals were subjected to experiments. The animals with untreated eustachian tube served as the controls. Prior to experiments, a hole as large as possible was made in the tympanic membrane and the middle ear cavity was perfused via the external auditory canal. Also tritium water was administered through intravenous injection and transference of this tritium water into the middle ear cavity was measured by the radioactivity of the middle ear perfusate. From the results obtained, microvascular permeability of submucosa of the middle ear cavity was determined at various periods after establishment of otitis media. Moreover, histamine was added to the fluid for perfusion to determine whether vascular permeability is increased by histamine or not. Radioactivity levels were measured using a scintillation counter.
The vascular permeability as measured at 1, 7 and 14 days after occlusion of the eustachian tube increased in function with time. A histopathological study of otitis media with effusion induced by the same procedure indicated a remarkable increase in permeability such as edematous hypertropy of the submucosal tissue of the middle ear. The intensity of the response (increase in vascular permeability) of the mucosa of the middle ear to histamine decreased gradually after occulusion of the eustachian tube, while the effect of the histamine tended to have a long duration. In this tendency no dose-respond relation was seen.
From these findings it was demonstrated that the mucosal membrane of the middle ear induced of otitis media with effusion shows a remarkable increase in vascular permeability which persists at least until 14 days after treatment. Moreover it was indicated that histamine increase vascular permeability of not only submucosal micro blood vessels of the mucosa of the normal middle ear cavity but also these in already established otitis media with effusion, suggesting its involvement in the persistence of this disease.
Similar to histamine, the vascular permeating factors present in the fluid of the middle ear easily enter into the mucosa through inflammed tissue to further increase microvascular permeability, making chronic inflammation and irreversible. The remarkable proliferation and organization tendency of the connective tissue as revealed by the histopathological observation made at 7 and 10 weeks after treatment of the eustachian tube reflect the above described process.
Therefore, in otitis media with effusion which persists for a prolong time and in which the mucosa of the middle ear consistently exposed to the retained fluid containing various factors such as the vascular permeability increasing factor, it is difficult to find a cure of otitis media with conservative treatment such as administration of drugs. We confirmed it is again important under these conditions to employ surgical treatment such as removal of retained fluid as early as possible, namely myringotomy and transtympanic insertion of a drainage tube.

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