The emphasis of this symposium seems wisely placed. What happens after the primary operation usually determines whether the patient lives or dies and whether he regains a well healed ear and mastoid with normal function or has a persistent pathologic condition. It is the complications of otitis and mastoiditis that after all determine the mortality. The greatest factor in controlling these complications seems to me to be chemotherapy.
A brief general review of the use of sulfanilamide and allied compounds seems to be necessary to an understanding of the full possibilities of postoperative care. Many papers have discussed these agents, and Fenton1 and McLaurin2 covered the fundamentals before sections of the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society. Schenck3 gave an excellent summary of over two hundred and fifty titles which had appeared up to November 1938, but so much new knowledge is constantly being reported that it is difficult to