[Glimpses from the history of otitis media]

The history of otitis media has much in common with the history of other infectious diseases. Over the years France, England and Germany respectively dominated the field and treatment of otitis media. During the French period (eighteenth and nineteenth century), Louis Petit for the first time performed an operation with opening of the mastoid cells. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, during the English period, many famous ear doctors spread their names over the world, namely J. Toynbee, J. Hinton and W. Wild of which the latter 1853, wrote the first text book in the field called "Practical observations on aural surgery and the nature and treatment of diseases of the ear." During the German period the surgical treatment (mastoidectomy) of otitis media and its sequele was fullfilled by A. von Tröltsch, H. Schwartze and A. Politzer who together started the first journal "Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde". Politzer also 1873, started the first ear clinic in Europe, in Vienna. It was almost a rule, that all ear surgeons in Europe during that time, had to visit the ear clinic in "Allgemaines Krankenhaus" in Vienna to gain a proper education. 1940 B. Chain, V. Fleming and H. Florey invented the penicillin and were rewarded with the Nobel prize, and from then on the treatment of otitis media changed dramatically.