"... if we carefully survey the history of the rise and progress of aural [surgery], as a distinct branch of scientific surgery, one main cause of the disrepute into which it has fallen may be traced to the neglect of the pathology of the organ of hearing" Joseph Toynbee, 1868
From Schuknecht HF, Pathology of the Ear,
2nd Ed, Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, 1993