I did not choose the title for this paper. It was assigned to me, but I accepted it, because it was a challenge to state and face the facts and to add something worth while to the present almost total lack of knowledge on these subjects. Today otologists know of no way to diagnose early (subclinical) otosclerosis, no sure way to diagnose early or late ankylosis of the stapedial footplate (clinical otosclerosis) and no way of curing the lesion. They possess little knowledge as to possible means of arresting it and have no means of preventing its inheritance.
The chief reason for this state of affairs is that early otosclerosis causes no deafness, and even late lesions cause no deafness unless they involve the labyrinthine windows sufficiently to impede the vibration of the stapes. In the absence of deafness diagnosis of otosclerosis has been impossible.
Early ankylosis of the stapes