The earliest study of magnitude of the middle ears of infants was done by Aschoff in 1897 1 which included gross examination of the opened tympanic cavities of autopsied infants, followed by histologi cal preparations. Among other aspects, Aschoff was concerned with amnionic debris within the middle ear cavities. The next major arbeits of a similar nature were performed by Wittmaack in 1918 and in 1926 2 in which he proposed that irregularities of the mastoid air spaces represented abnormal development, and that pathological types of mucosa influenced the susceptibility to otitis media.In 1940 Diamant 3 demonstrated normal variation in size and distribution of mastoid air spaces in the general population by use of planimetric measurements on roentgen pictures taken partly of normal mastoids and partly of instances of chronic otitis media.In 1948 Diamant and Lilja 4 reported a series of patients in which pre-operative roentgenography was correlated with histological studies of mastoidectomy bone chips.Material obtained from 375 mastoidectomies were studied by Friedmann in 1956 5 from which he concluded that no evidence existed which would indicate that the basic pathology of otitis media had changed in the post-penicillin era; that the mucosa of the ear is very susceptible to infection, and that the hyperplastic mucosa and osteo plastic processes which were observed were the result, rather than the predisposing factor, of otitis media. Studies of temporal bone infec tions in the antibiotic era have been reported by various investi gators. 00In 1953, Werne and Garrow reported a large series of necropsies of infants dying in various circumstances. Their series included in fants "found dead," 11 infants observed to die suddenly, 12 and those From the Division of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Tennessee and the City of Memphis Hospitals.
