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The making of a career: Joseph Toynbee's first steps in otology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2011

A Mudry
A Mudry*
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Albert Mudry, Department of Otolaryngology, Stanford University, Avenue de la Gare 6, CH-1003 Lausanne, Switzerland Fax: +41 21 3238325 E-mail: AMudry@ohns.stanford.edu
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Abstract

Joseph Toynbee (1815–1866) is considered one of the fathers of modern otology. He spent his whole life in London, studying and describing the anatomy and pathology of the main diseases of the ear. This paper presents some of the motivations behind Toynbee's decision to specialise in otology, by examining several of his letters published under the signature ‘J. T.’ in The Lancet between 1838 and 1839. Frustrated by the weakened state of aural surgery in Britain, and by the popularity of several ‘quacks aurists’ (including John Harrison Curtis, William Wright and Alexander Turnbull), Toynbee insisted that the study of the ear needed to distance itself from quackery and rebuild itself upon a scientific foundation. This paper evaluates several exchanges between Toynbee and Curtis, Wright and Turnbull.

Keywords

OtolaryngologyMedical History19th CenturyQuackeryJoseph Toynbee
Type
Review Articles
Information
The Journal of Laryngology & Otology , Volume 126 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 2 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 2011

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