1590 MERCURIALE, Girolamo (1530 – 1606)
De compositione medicamentorum; De morbis oculorum, & aurium….
The De oculorum et aurium represents the first “clinical” manual on diseases of the ear. Mercuriali was primarily concerned with treatment.
GMN 3343 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4615
1683 DU VERNEY, Guichard-Joseph (Guichard Joseph Duverney) (1648 – 1730)
Traité de l’organe de l’ouie; contenant la structure, les usages et les maladies de toutes les parties de l’oreille.
The first scientific account of the structure, function and diseases of the ear. Du Verney showed that the bony external meatus develops from the tympanic ring and that the mastoid air cells communicate with the tympa…
GMN 1545 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2867
1806 SAUNDERS, John Cunningham (1773 – 1810)
The anatomy of the human ear … with a treatise on the diseases of the organ.
Saunders was the first to advise paracentesis in acute middle-ear suppuration.
GMN 3362 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4746
1821 ITARD, Jean Marie Gaspard (1774 – 1838)
Traité des maladies de l’oreille et de l’audition. 2 vols.
First of the modern textbooks on diseases of the ear, this work did much to establish otology on a firm basis. Itard described startle tests for the hearing of children and malingerers, and he developed an acumeter.
GMN 3364 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4749
1827 SAISSY, Jean Antoine (1756 – 1822)
Essai sur les maladies de l’oreille interne.
Saissy described a Eustachian bougie; he was probably the first to use this instrument. Besides dealing with the labyrinth, his book discusses diseases of the tympanum and Eustachian tube. English translation, Baltimo…
GMN 3365 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4750
1835 KRAMER, Wilhelm (1801 – 1875)
Die Erkenntniss und Heilung der Ohrenkrankheiten.
Kramer was a pioneer German otologist.
GMN 3367 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4754
1862 TRÖLTSCH, Anton Freiherr von (1829 – 1890)
Die Krankheiten des Ohres.
Tröltsch was Professor of Otology as Würzburg. He was the founder of the Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde. English translation, 1874.
GMN 3376 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4786
1867 VOLTOLINI, Friedrich Eduard Rudolph (1819 – 1889)
Die akute Entzündung des heutigen Labyrinthes, gewöhnlich für Meningitis cerebro-spinalis gehalten.
First description of “Voltolini’s disease” – an acute painful inflammation of the internal ear, followed by fever, delirium, and loss of consciousness. Voltolini was the founder of the Monatsschrift.
GMN 3379 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4799
1867 WREDEN, Robert Robertovich (1837 – 1893)
Sechs Fälle von Myringomykosis (Aspergillus glaucus Lk.).
Wreden, otologist to the Czar, was the first to call special attention to otomycosis.
GMN 3380 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4801
1870 LUCAE, Johann Constantin August (1835 – 1911)
Die Schalleitung durch die Kopfknochen und ihre Bedeutung für die Diagnostik der Ohrenkrankheiten.
Lucae was the first to study the transmission of sounds through the cranial bones for the purpose of diagnosing diseases of the ear.
GMN 3381 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4803
1874 CHARCOT, Jean Martin (1825 – 1893)
Vertiges ab aure laesa (maladie de Menière).
Charcot completed the description of the syndrome first described by Menière.
GMN 3383 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5075
1877 BEZOLD, Friedrich (1842 – 1908)
Erkrankungen des Warzentheiles.
First clear description of mastoiditis.
GMN 3386 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5082
1895 POLITZER, Ádám (1835 – 1920)
On a peculiar affection of the labyrinthine capsule as a frequent cause of deafness.
First report of otosclerosis as a separate clinical entity.
GMN 3395 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5137
1904 GRADENIGO, Giuseppe (1859 – 1926)
Sulla leptomeningite circonscritta e sulla paralisi dell abducente di origine otitica.
“Gradenigo’s syndrome” – acute otitis media followed by abductor paralysis. Translation of the paper is in the German Arch. Ohrenheilk., 1904, 62, 255-70.
GMN 3398 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5147
1907 HUNT, James Ramsay (1872 – 1937)
On herpetic inflammations of the geniculate ganglion: A new syndrome and its complications.
Herpes zoster oticus, also known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome type 2.
GMN 12253 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14468
1924 POHLMAN, Augustus Grote (1879 – 1950); KRANZ, Frederick William (1887 – 1979)
Binaural minimum audition in a subject with ranges of deficient acuity.
First demonstration of the phenomenon of loudness recruitment.
GMN 3405.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5199
1931 GUILD, Stacy R. (1881 – 1966)
Correlations of the differences in the density of innervation of the organ of Corti with differences in the acuity of hearing, including evidence as to the location in the cochlea of the receptors of certain tones.
The first study to relate hair cell and neuron loss to the hearing of patients. It was the first to show that high frequency sound is "heard" at the base of the cochlea and low frequency sound at the apex. With S. J. …
GMN 7224 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9392
1938 HALLPIKE, Charles Skinner (1900 – 1979); CAIRNS, Sir Hugh William Bell (1896 – 1952)
Observations on the pathology of Menière’s syndrome.
Hallpike and Cairns were first to describe the characteristic histological changes in Menière’s disease. Also published in J Laryng. Otol., 1938, 53, 625-55.
GMN 3409 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5216
