EAR EXOSTOSES 



By ales HRDLICKA 

 Curator, Division of Physical Anthropology, U. S. National Museum 



(With Five Plates) 

 INTRODUCTION 



Few subjects in racial osteopathology have received more attention 

 than that of ear exostoses, and this not only in Whites, but also in 

 the American aborigines. 



The term " ear exostoses " is used here for the sake of brevity. 

 Under it are understood all distinct bony excrescences or tumors within 

 the external auditory canal, of whatever form or size, from the emi- 

 nence, ridge, or " pearl ", that can definitely be recognized as an ab- 

 normal formation, to the more or less irregular bony masses that in 

 some cases fill almost the whole lumen of the meatus and may even 

 protrude from its mouth. 



These growths have received a number of names. They belong to the 

 " enosthoses " of Von Rokitansky ; Toynbee called them " osteomata ", 

 Roosa " hyperplastic osteomata ", Steinbriigge " periosteal osteomata ". 

 Kessel distinguished hyperostoses, exostoses, periostoses, and osteo- 

 phytes. Other authors use mostly the terms hyperostoses and ex- 

 ostoses, acknowledging that the two merge into each other. In general, 

 however, as stated by Dahlstrom (1923, p. 217), " these growths have 

 come to be understood as exostoses." 



LITERATURE 



Bony growths in the auditory canal were doubtless known to medi- 

 cal men long ago, but what seems to be the first printed record of such 

 an abnormality appeared in 1809, when Autenrieth * reported a case 



* Autenrieth, J. H. P., Arch. Physiol., vol. 9, p. 349, Halle, 1809. As the first 

 report, the case deserves perhaps to be cited in full and in the original : 



" Bey einem vierzigjahrigen Weibe, das sieben Jahre friiher eine Hemiplegie 

 der linken Seite erlitten hatte, und im Friihjahr von 1808 an einer Wiederholung 

 des Schlagflusses gestorben war; ihr ganzer Schadel zeigte sich schief, und 

 weiter auf der rechten, als linken Seite, die Jugular-Venen Grube ungewohnlich 

 weit, links auserst klein. Die eigentlich Zitzenfortsiitze waren gehorig gross 

 und sich einander gleich ; aber der rechte knucherne Gehorgang durch einen 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 93, No. 6 



