The diseases of the ear, their diagnosis and treatment : a text-book of aural surgery in the form of academical lectures / by Anton von Tröltsch ; translated from the German and edited by D.B. St. John Roosa ... from the second and last German edition.

  • Tröltsch, Anton Friedrich, Freiherr von, 1829-1890.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the ear, their diagnosis and treatment : a text-book of aural surgery in the form of academical lectures / by Anton von Tröltsch ; translated from the German and edited by D.B. St. John Roosa ... from the second and last German edition. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    any discussion as to the views of these authors, as compared with those of Von Troltsch, whose hook I am now presenting. The fact of the labor I have been at, shows sufficiently my belief in the scientific character of the book, and of its adaptability to the wants of our profession. This work, if indeed the rendering into English shall not have proved a failure, will tell its own story, and will stand or fall by its own claims. Some few additions made by the translator will be found inclosed in parentheses. I believe aural surgery to be a comparatively neglected field, and my own experience has already been ample enough to show that a very much larger number of very chronic cases come to the surgeon’s eye than in other branches of our art; consequently, we cannot expect the same therapeutic results, as for instance, in Ophthalmology, and our reward for labor cannot just now be the dazzling one that falls to the lot of successful practitioners in other departments; but if we but succeed in waking up the profession to the curability of recent ear cases, and to the fallacy of the idea of out- growing these affections, perhaps our work will be done. “ Arbores seret diligens agricola, quarum adspiciet baccam ipse nunquam.” Without any responsibility for the truth of Dr. Von Troltsch’s opinions, his work is presented as one founded on pathological in- vestigation, and ample experience, and as containing some views, which, so far as I know—and I hope reviewers will note this expression—are not to be found in any other book. His method of illuminating the external ear, is, I believe, altogether the best in use, and one which must commend itself to every one who has found the difficulties of the previously known methods. The lec- ture on “ Purulent Catarrh of the Middle Ear, as occurring in In- fants,” is one that calls attention in a striking way to some loose habits of diagnosis. I shall be personally indebted to any gentleman, who has oppor- tunities for post-mortem examination of the infant subject, for the results of any researches in this direction. I am committed irre- vocably to no opinions in the practice of aural surgery, except that • much may be done to advance its position, and from the oppor- tunities afforded in the bi-weekly clinic in the Eye Infirmary in this city, now conducted by Dr. Hinton and myself, but which was founded by Dr. C. R. Agnew, and successively sustained by his colleagues, Drs. Bumstead, Hinton, and Hoyes, I hope to be able to add a testimony of some value for or against doctrines, which are now presented to the profession in these United States.