Historia Otorhinolaryngologiae: Volumen Primum

Historical investigation is indisputably a fundamental part of medical research. How can anyone introduce a new idea without a full knowledge of what has gone before? If history is the basis of knowledge, it therefore follows that the development of any new ideas in otolaryngology requires a full understanding of the evolution of the specialty.

The late 19th century saw the ascendancy of medical specialisation. Before this time, traditional practitioners disdained specialists, and associated them with quacks and itinerant healers. The first otolaryngology journal was specifically dedicated to otology. It was published in Würzburg by Anton von Tröltsch, Hermann Schwartze, and Adam Politzer in 1864. Since then, many otolaryngological periodicals have appeared (and indeed vanished) and there are now many different specialist and sub-specialist journals dedicated to our specialty in different languages throughout the world. Sadly, quite a few of them seem very reticent to accept historical papers.

The first general textbooks describing the history of the subject were published in the first part of the 20th century, but none of them presented a consolidated view of the three sub-specialties. Claude Chauveau wrote a five-volume book about The History of Diseases of the Pharynx (1901 to 1906); Adam Politzer presented A History of Otology in two volumes (1907 to 1913); a History of Laryngology and Rhinology by Jonathan Wright was published in 1914; and Karl Kassel wrote a History of Rhinology in two volumes between 1914 and 1922.

The formation of an international society dedicated to study the history of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) has been erratic from the onset. In the mid-1970s, Jacques Willemot (1928–2011) would have informal soirées at his house in Ghent, where kindred spirits and colleagues would discuss the history of our specialty. The topics discussed here were eventually published in 1981 as a major book, Naissance et développement de l’Oto-rhino-laryngologie dans l’histoire de la médecine. Jacques was a driving force in the inauguration of an international historical society and at the 1980 Congress of the European Rhinologic Society, he suggested the foundation the European Society for the Study of the History of Otorhinolaryngology, which had its first meeting the following year in Budapest.

This was so successful that national societies were set up in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Austria, and West Germany to study the history of our specialty. Of all these small national groups, only the British Society of the History of ENT has survived under the leadership of Neil Weir (London) and still holds regular annual meetings every December in the Toynbee Room at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

Unfortunately, Jaques Willemot’s European Society of the History of Otorhinolaryngology was apparently never registered after its first meeting in Budapest and only met very sporadically. There was evidently a small symposium at the 2000 Berlin EUFOS Congress in Berlin 2000 and again in 2004 on the island of Rhodes.

It was not really until 2007 that a viable international society was established and this took place in Barcelona under the name of the International Society for the History of Otorhinolaryngology. The four founding members on that occasion were Wolfgang Pirsig (Ulm, Germany), Robert Ruben (New York, United States of America) Albert Mudry (Lausanne, Switzerland), and Robert van de Graaf (Groningen, Netherlands). The Society has convened annually since then, and working parties and small conferences have taken place in select locations around the world: Berlin (2008), Zürich (2009), London (2010), New York (2011), Padua (2012), Vienna (2013), Paris (2014), Heidelberg (2015), Utrecht (2016), Varna (2017), Dublin (2018), and Bad Lippspringe (2019). Sadly, the 2020 Prague Meeting was necessarily postponed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic with its consequent global travel restrictions, but it is certainly hoped that the society will continue to convene after the crisis.

Because of the apparent reticence by the main international otolaryngology journals to publish historical research, the Society decided to publish its own journal in 2015. It was called Historia Otorhinolaryngologiae and was the first periodical to deal specifically with the historical aspects of diseases of the ENT and their related sciences. It is a lavishly illustrated, free, open-access, peer-reviewed online journal which had an editorial board of colleagues and scholars from all around the world. The one thing they all had in common was a passionate love of the history of otolaryngology.

The Editorial Board, which is comprised of both academic historians as well as experienced ENT surgeons, has always been keen to maintain a robust and academically based historiography. All the articles presented are in context with the contemporary subject culture and society, and are based on primary references (or referenced translations). It was always the intention of the editors to publish the online articles as a book, when there were sufficient numbers to justify this. It is also their dear hope that this first volume, which you now hold, is only one of many more to come.

Doubtless anyone who has opened this book and read thus far is a kindred spirit and well aware of the importance of history in informing what lies ahead. They will be fully in accord with our aphorism that the Past is the key by which the Present is able to open the Future.

With this in mind, volume II is waiting hopefully for your possible future contributions.

Contributors

Preface
Albert Mudry, Wolfgang Pirsig, John Riddington Young

1. How to Set Up a Library on the History of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS)
Albert Mudry

2. The Father of Stapes Surgery
Rinze Anthony Tange

3. An Otological Examination of a Surgeon in 1811, Depicted by George Cruikshank
Wolfgang Pirsig, Sue Weir

4. Josef Gruber (1827–1900): An Underestimated Viennese Otologist in the Shade of Adam Politzer
Albert Mudry

5. The Ears of the Lion Man: Early Depictions of Auricles in Ice Age Figurative Art
Wolfgang Pirsig, Kurt Wehrberger

6. Going Back to our Roots: Establishing an Otolaryngological Historical Society in Australia
Nicholas Jufas, Niall Jefferson

7. Murder Most Foul: The Poisoning of Hamlet’s Father
John Riddington Young

8. A Sordid Chapter Indeed: An Unusual Attack by American Plastic Surgeons on their Otolaryngological ‘Colleagues’
Egbert H. Huizing

9. Some Thought About the History of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS)
Albert Mudry

10. Ode to Sir Morell Mackenzie
John Riddington Young

11. Jacques Joseph’s Original Instrument Collection
Hans Behrbohm, Walter Briedigkeit, Jürgen Flemming, Dieter Jaeger, Michael Künze

12. Utrecht 1958: Radioactivity Alarm after Nasopharyngeal Radium Irradiation
Kees Graamans

13. Freud’s Friend, Fliess
John Riddington Young

14. The Father of Paediatric ENT
John Riddington Young

15. Robert Bárány’s Commemorative Memorabilia Issued Since his Death in 1936
Albert Mudry

16. The Great Neurologist’s Early Work on Ear Wax: Alois Alzheimer’s Inaugural Thesis on Ceruminous Glands
Wolf Lübbers, Wolfgang Pirsig, Albert Mudry

17. Contributions of the Anatomist, Emil Huschke to Otolaryngology
Hilmar Gudziol, Orlando Guntinas-Lichius

18. ORL, Head & Neck Surgery Historical Research Papers: Suggestion of a Six Points Quality Scale
Albert Mudry, Wolfgang Pirsig, Rinze Tange, John Riddington-Young Robert J. Ruben

19. Hieronymus Bosch’s Stamps: Realistic, Satyrical, Grotesque and Otolaryngological!
Albert Mudry

20. The History of the Tenotomy of the Middle Ear Muscles
Rinze Anthony Tange

21. The Strange and Eventful History of Jacobsen’s Organ
John Riddington Young, George S. Stoyanov

22. Anatomy of the Orbicularis Oris Muscle A Historical Review
Carolin Snitzelaar, Andreas Prescher, Wolfgang Angerstein

23. Theodor Kocher, Nobel Prize Winner and His Work in Thyroid Physiology, Pathology and Surgery
Albert Mudry, Lisa A. Orloff

24. Rhinophyma: A History of its Nomenclature
Albert Mudry, Philippe Mudry, Wolfgang Pirsig

25. John Shea Jr., the Founder of Stapedectomy for Otosclerosis
Rinze Anthony Tange

26. McIndoe’s Guinea Pig Club: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Anastasha Herman and Colonel (retd.) John Riddington Young

27. Patron Saints in Otolaryngology
John Riddington Young

HNO Informationen 2/2022
By Dr. med. W. Lübbers

Die Ergebnisse geschichtlicher Untersuchungen können in der Rückschau mit dem heutigen Wissen bewundernd oder belächelnd interpretiert werden. Auch eine dankbare oder demutvolle Sichtweise ist möglich. Dabei sollten die oft mühsamen Anfänge wichtiger Entwicklungen unter den damals erschwerten Bedingungen gewürdigt werden. Aber auch traurige lrrwege und Fehler sollten ohne Überheblichkeit beschrieben werden.

All diese Elemente sind in dem voluminösen Band “Historia Otorhinolaryngologiae” (sic!) vereinigt. Die geschichtlichen Betrachtungen reichen von steinzeitlichen Elfenbeinschnitzereien der Ohrmuschel des “Löwenmenschen” über die Entwicklung der Stapes-Chirurgie bis hin zur Frage der Therapie mit radioaktiven Substanzen beim Paukenerguss. Weitere Artikel beschreiben schlaglichtartig die Bedeutung wichtiger Forscher unseres Faches: Alois Alzheimer, Theodor Kocher, Joseph Gruber, Robert Bárány, Morel, Mackenzie und John J. Shea jun. Hochinteressant sind auch die kultur- wie auch medizinhistorischen Anmerkungen zu penibel herausgesuchten Porträts im Werk von Hieronymus Bosch und dem englischen Karikaturisten George Cruikshank. Ein Grossteil der Autoren hat sich sehr bemüht, spezielle HNO-Erkrankungen im Spiegel der bildenden Kunst aufzuspüren. Zahlreiche gut bebilderte Beiträge zeugen davon. All das ist gepaart mit vertieftem Fachwissen, Witz und Selbstkritik. Man merkt, dass die Autoren neben der Recherche viel Freude und Herzblut investiert haben.

Ergänzt werden die Artikel durch ganz praktische Hinweise, wie z.B. eine HNO-Geschichtsbibliothek aufzubauen ist oder welche Qualitätskriterien für Veröffentlichungen zur Geschichte des Faches geiten sollten. Zum Ende des Buches werden auch noch die Schutzheiligen der HNO­Heilkunde mit herrlicher englischer Distanziertheit und viel Schmunzeln “beleuchtet”.

Ein Grossteil der Autoren hat sich schon vor Jahren in einer losen Gruppe freundschaftlich zusammengeschlossen und die Ergebnisse ihrer Untersuchungen bei jährlichen Treffen dieser “International Society of History of Otorhinolaryngology” veröffentlicht. Zusätzlich werden HNO-historische Artikel in einer Online­Zeitschrift veröffentlicht (https://www.historiaorl.com/). Den Herausgebern aus Deutschland, England und der Schweiz, die neben dem Wissen um die HNO auch Qualifikationen im historischen Bereich besitzen, ist es gelungen, aus dieser Serie 28 Artikel zur Geschichte der HNO-Heilkunde zusammenzustellen, die schlaglichtartig und mit viel Empathie Teile der mittlerweile doch sehr umfangreichen HNO-Historie beleuchten.

“Zweifellos ist jeder, der dieses Buch aufgeschlagen und gelesen hat, … sich der Bedeutung der Geschichte bewusst, um über das informiert zu sein, was vor uns liegt. Sie werden voll und ganz mit unserem Aphorismus übereinstimmen, dass die Vergangenheit der Schlüssel ist, durch den die Gegenwart in der Lage ist, die Zukunft zu öffnen.” (Zit. übersetzt aus dem englischen Vorwort).

Dieses Buch ist also für alle, die aus der Geschichte unseres Faches lernen und die sich und ihren Beruf in Werken der bildenden Kunst wiederfinden wollen.

Man darf auf das geplante Volumen Secundum gespannt sein.

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European Annals of ORL
By Ollivier Laccourreye

Avec cet ouvrage de 338 pages trois très talentueux otorhinolaryngologistes, Albert Mudry, Wolfang Pirsig et John Ridington Young, membres de la toute jeune Société Internationale pour l’Histoire de l’Otorhinolaryngologie fondée en 2007 regroupent plusieurs des travaux publiés dans la revue cde cette société, Historia Otorhinolaryngologiae, qui explore les aspects historiques des maladies ORL.

Ecrit en langue anglaise dans un style direct plaisant et enlevé, cet ouvrage trouvera sa place naturelle dans la bibliothèque de tous les otorhinolaryngologistes intéressés par l’histoire de leur spécialité. Une trentaine de chapitres nous rappellent ainsi nos glorieux anciens, tout en prenant des travers des plus intéressants. En témoignent les chapitres consacrés à l’examen otologique en 1811, à un ami cher de Freud, le rhinologiste Fliess, et à leurs échanges sur diverses théories ayant trait à l’importance du nez dans la sexualité, aux allusions à l’otorhinolaryngologie dans l’œuvre de Hiéronymes Bosch, à l’histoire du traitement par radiothérapie de l’otite séreuse de l’enfant à Utrecht entre 1945-1958 (jusqu’à la survenue d’un incident dramatique) ou aux Saint Patrons de l’otorhinolaryngologie. Le lecteur anglophone sera ravi. Le lecteur francophone sera un peu surpris; l’histoire latine de l’otorhinolaryngologie est à la portion congrue mais tout livre comporte des choix et les auteurs nous promettent déjà un second volume.

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ENT & Audiology News
Katherine Conroy

Historia Otorhinolaryngologia is the ultimate coffee table book for any otolaryngologist. Underneath its elegant cover, there are hundreds of fascinating pictures to flick through, ranging from ancient texts and religious icons to historic specimens and photographs.

However, on closer inspection one finds that this is not a case of style over substance. Editors Albert Mudry, Wolfgang Pirsig and John Riddington Young, all jointly qualified as ENT surgeons and historians of medicine, have assembled an international and multidisciplinary array of authors. Together they have produced 27 chapters spanning various topics, from general historical ENT methodology to in-depth analysis of specific figures or events, ideal for dipping in and out of at leisure.

Particular highlights include Kees Graamans’ gripping narrative of a nasopharyngeal radiation mishap in 1950s Utrecht, explaining how the ensuing media coverage of this scandal shaped medical practice. Art enthusiasts will enjoy Mudry’s examination of depictions of the ear, nose and throat by Hieronymus Bosch in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Anyone who has frequented meetings in the Toynbee Mackenzie room at the Royal Society of Medicine will be interested to read Riddington Young’s ‘Ode to Sir Morell Mackenzie’, a controversial surgeon whose eponymous society was also known as the ‘Cock-Up Club’. And those wishing to pursue an interest in ENT history further can find advice on conducting their own research and establishing a historical society.

Whilst representing an indulgent purchase at around £115, this absorbing and informative book is a timeless classic, providing a diverse selection of alternative perspectives on the history of otolaryngology.

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Journal of Laryngology and Otology (JLO)
E W Fisher

This lavishly illustrated and beautifully produced book is volume one
of a compilation of articles from the online journal dedicated to ENT-ORL
history -Historia Otorhinolaryngologia. The articles are written mainly
by members of the International Society for the History of Otorhinolaryngology
which has met regularly since 2007. The editors are members with a particular
interest in history who have researched and written widely in historical
topics – Albert Mudry (Lausanne, Switzerland and Stanford), Wolfgang Pirsig
(Ulm, Germany) and John Riddington Young (‘JRY’, Barnstaple, UK).

The most accessible, good value and shortish book on ENT history is Neil
Weir’s wide-ranging textbook which has been updated by Neil with Albert
Mudry’s assistance (1). This volume allows a more in-depth description of
individual pieces of research and is enhanced by many colour illustrations.
A difficulty with publishing historical articles in standard journals is
a limitation in words and illustrations. The JLO publishes many and encourages
short history articles, but this volume allows the authors to expand and
do more justice to their topics. The range of topics in this volume is very
wide and incorporates anatomy, pathology, all sub-specialties and particularly
the interface between ENT and basic science, pre-history, art history, religion
and literature.

The articles are so fascinating that it seems a pity to single out any,
but I must. My favourites for artwork is the work on Hieronymus Bosch by
Albert Mudry, for religion is JRY’s articles on Patron Saints and for quirky
interest is Professor Pirsig and Sue Weir’s account of ‘An otological examination
of a surgeon in 1811 …’. I recommend this tome to anyone who loves history,
along with Neil and Albert’s book to give context. Both are good value.