472 OTOLOGY AND LARYNGOLOGY 



And now, gentlemen, that I am at the end of my task, let me say 

 that nobody could be more painfully conscious than I am how in- 

 completely I have fulfilled it. I had intended to bring before you a 

 picture full of life, and on looking back I have to confess to myself 

 that I have offered you little more than a framework the details of 

 which must be filled by your own knowledge and imagination. I had 

 hoped to give you chapter and verse for every statement I have made, 

 and I see that my paper is little more than a sort of catalogue under 

 the headings of which only indications but no elaborations could be 

 given. 



But whilst unreservedly recognizing these shortcomings, I trust 

 I may justly plead that the subject confided to me is one of such 

 magnitude that within the limit of time necessarily imposed upon 

 me it was well-nigh impossible to do full justice to it. Yet incom- 

 plete as my exposition has been, I venture to hope that it has illus- 

 trated by the demonstration of the intimate connection of laryngo- 

 logy, otology, and rhinology with human activity in so many other 

 branches of Art and Science, the truth of Goethe's immortal dictum: 



Truly the fabric of mental fleece 

 Resembles a weaver's masterpiece, 



Where a thousand threads one treadle throws, 

 Where fly the shuttles hither and thither, 

 Unseen the threads are knit together, 



And an infinite combination grows; 



a^id that it has more than justified the warning words of my great 

 teacher Virchow, which I have quoted at the beginning of this 

 address : 



That no specialty can flourish which separates itself completely 

 from the general body of Science; that no specialty can develop 

 usefully and beneficially if it does not ever and ever again drink from 

 the general fount, if it does not remain in relationship with other 

 specialties, so that we all help one another, and thereby preserve for 

 Science, at any rate, even if it should not be necessary for Practice, 

 that unity on which our position rests intrinsically, and, I may well 

 say also, with regard to the outer world. 



SHORT PAPER 



PROFESSOR H. ZWAARDEMAKER, of Utrecht, Holland, contributed an interesting 

 paper on "Die Vestimmung der Gehorscharfe mittelst Fliistersprache.'" 



