The discovery of stapes

Giovanni Filippo Ingrassia revisited and redefined some of Galeno's reports, and was recognized as one of the leading Italian Physicians of the 16th century. Ingrassia principally studied the skull, and gave very important contributions to otorhinolaryngology, including the discovery of the stapes. He also isolated the inferior nasal concha from the maxillary bone, described the frontal sinus, the pterygopalatine fossa and several foramina of the skull. Ingrassia firstly attributed a sensorial function to the middle ear bones, which he called fifth particular function. He also added some details to the description of the VIII cranial nerve, which introduces the concept of bone conducting sound. The most important discovery in Ingrassia's study about the hearing organ was the first description of the third bone of the ossicular chain that he called "stapes". Ingrassia should thus be reconsidered under a new light for his important discovery and for his intuitions about the stapes and its role in hearing. It is appropriate for a Sicilian physician to be placed at his rightful place side-by-side with Eustachio and Valsalva in the history of otology.