In reviewing the literature, one is surprised at the limited number of authentic cases of malignant disease that are reported. This may be due either to the lack of recognition of a malignant condition or to the fact that because of its grave prognosis, attention is not called to it. Foreign contemporaries have been more diligent in giving data on these cases. In an exhaustive study, Zeroni1 was able to collect reports of 121 cases of malignant conditions of the ear which had been published during the previous ninety-five years.
Milligan2 furnished further data in the records of the London Hospital, in which the average attendance of patients a year is 200,000. During a ten year period, not a case was reported.
Lévêque3 said that Dupou estimated that in one of every 10,000 cases of chronic otitis media, malignant disease developed. There can be no doubt