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It will no doubt be left for later decades to acclaim the Lempert fenestra nov-ovalis operation the outstanding surgical achievement in modern otologic surgery. Not since the advent of the simple mastoidectomy of Schwartze and the radical operation of Staacke has anything so momentous been evolved in the field of otology. As a boon to humanity it certainly ranks in importance with these two surgical procedures.
There is little wonder indeed that otologists originally greeted this work with so little enthusiasm and so little credulity. To begin with, they had always been concerned primarily with the eradication of disease of the temporal bone. No progress had ever been made surgically in the restoration of hearing. Then, in addition, knowledge of the pathologic involvement in otosclerosis, with its progressive characteristics, precluded the feasibility of employing surgical measures in an effort to retard its progress, let alone the possibility of restoring that