A careful perusal of the literature for 1929 on acute and chronic otitis media and sinus thrombosis impresses one with the fine caliber of most of the articles. As has been my custom in previous summaries, I have selected for discussion only those reports that deserve special consideration because of the excellence of their material or the originality of the ideas presented.
From the general tone of the articles studied, there is evident a tendency to reevaluate certain fundamental principles. Where definite pathologic and anatomic changes have been observed, a better understanding is sought, and has to a certain extent been achieved, of how and why those changes came to be present. This is largely due to the classic work of Wittmaack,1 an understanding of which clarifies much in the mechanics of pathology that has heretofore been obscure.
It is interesting to note that Wittmaack's theories of