The society which fosters research to save human life cannot escape responsibility for the life thus extended. It is for science not only to add years to life, but more important, to add life to the years.1
Old age confronts society with unprecedented problems, since it is estimated, according to Cowdry,2 that in 1980 the number of persons over 65 years of age will be 14.4 per cent of the total population, more than double that of today. Babbitt3 stressed the increasing numbers comprising the aging group and urged that otolaryngologists unite in studying geriatrics because of its obvious practical and scientific importance.
As a result of the senescent changes in the body as a whole and the local changes in the nose, sinuses and ears, there is altered function, which explains the peculiar and ofttimes unusual manifestations of infections in the aged, so at variance with analogous infections in