Art. XXXIV.???The Membrana Tympani in Health and Disease. Illustrated by twenty-four chromo-lithographs. Clinical Contributions to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Ear, with a Supplement

Shedding light on the tympanic membrane: a brief history of the description and understanding of its anatomy

“…This foramen, however, does not appear to be constant'. 19 Use of the first otoscopes, and more so the use of microscopic otoscopy, provided, in the second half of the twentieth century, 20 confirmation that Valsalva was right about the Rivinuses, father and son. Nowadays, any tympanic perforation is considered pathological: the first otologists, even the greatest, would not have unanimously thought so.…”

“…However, he acknowledged that the lamina propria had 'two separable laminaean external radiate, and an internal circular'. 19 Although Politzer progressed significantly in understanding Eustachian tube permeability and catarrh, 29,30 he did not understand its link with so-called cholesteatoma disease. This disease was coined by Johannes Müller (1801-1858) in 1838 for what he considered to be a 'glandular neoplasm of middle ear mucosa'.…”

“…Illustrations from Adam Politzer's English-language book The Membrana Tympani in Health and Disease (1869). 19 This was followed four years later by his first otoscopy atlas: Die Beleuchtungsbilder des Trommelfells im gesunden und kranken Zustande (1865). 35 At that time, otology was born as a specialty.…”

Otitis Media

“…1 Knowledge about otitis media and its care increased significantly, although with variations in time and place, over the next 3½ millennia, with the early 19th Century bringing an acceleration in the accumulation of knowledge and the advent of two relatively effective care interventions: myringotomy 2 and Eustachian tube insufflations. 3 Toward the end of the 19th Century, diagnosis was made more certain by the use of illuminated otoscopy and the publishing of atlases of the tympanic membrane, 4 and adenoidectomy was introduced as an effective intervention. 5 Antibiotics, introduced in the first half of the 20th Century, became the mainstay for the care of otitis media.…”