Journals.—In 1864 the Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde was started by Politzer and Schwartze, and, in 1867, the Monatsschrift für Ohrenheilkunde (a monthly publication) was founded by Voltolini, Gruber, Weber-Liel and Rüdinger. Appearing first as the Archives of Ophthalmology and Otology, simultaneously in English and German, in 1869, the Archives of Otology became a separate publication under the editorship of Knapp, Moos and Roosa in 1879. Amongst other journals now existing are Annales des maladies de l’oreille et du larynx (Paris), Journal of Laryngology (London), Centralblatt für Ohrenheilkunde (Leipzig), &c.
Societies.—The earliest society formed was the American Otological Society (1868), which held annual meetings and published yearly transactions. Flourishing societies for the study of otology (sometimes combined with laryngology) exist in almost all civilized countries, and they usually publish transactions consisting of original papers and cases. The Otological Society of the United Kingdom was founded in 1900.
International Congresses.—International Otological congresses have been held at intervals of about four years at New York, Milan, Basel, Brussels, Florence, London and Bordeaux (1904). The proceedings of the congresses appear as substantial volumes.
Hospitals.—The earliest record of a public institution for the treatment of ear diseases is a Dispensary for Diseases of the Eye and Ear in London, started by Saunders and Cooper, which existed in 1804; the aural part, however, was soon closed, so that the actual oldest institution appears to be the Royal Ear Hospital, London, which was founded by Curtis in 1816. Four years later there was started the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. At the present time in every large town of Europe and America ear diseases are treated either in separate departments of general hospitals or in institutions especially devoted to the purpose.
For a history of otology from the earliest times refer to A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Ear, by D.B. St John Roosa, M.D., LL.D. (6th edition, New York, 1885), and for a general account of the present state of otological science to A Text-Book of the Diseases of the Ear for Students and Practitioners, by Professor Dr Adam Politzer, transl. by Milton J. Ballin, Ph.B., M.D., and Clarence J. Heller, M.D. (4th edition, London, 1902).
(E. C. B.*)
EARL, a title and rank of nobility (corresponding to Lat. comes; Fr. comte), now the third in order of the British peerage, and accordingly intervening between marquess and viscount. Earl, however, is the oldest title and rank of English nobles, and was the highest until the year 1337, when the Black Prince was created duke of Cornwall by Edward III.
The nature of a modern earldom is readily understood, since it is a rank and dignity of nobility which, while it confers no official power or authority, is inalienable, indivisible, and descends in regular succession to all the heirs under the limitation in the grant until, on their failure, it becomes extinct.
The title is of Scandinavian origin, and first appears in England under Canute as jarl, which was englished as eorl. Like the ealdorman, whose place he took, the eorl was a great royal officer, who might be set over several counties, but who presided separately in the county court of each with the bishop of the diocese. Although there were counts in Normandy before the Norman Conquest, they differed in character from the English earls, and the earl’s position appears to have been but slightly modified by the Conquest. He was still generally entitled to the “third penny” of the county, but his office tended, under Norman influence, to become an hereditary dignity and his sphere was restricted by the Conqueror to a single county. The right to the “third penny” is a question of some obscurity, but its possession seems to have been deemed the distinctive mark of an earl, while the girding with “the sword of the county” formed the essential feature in his creation or investiture, as it continued to do for centuries later. The fact that every earl was the earl of a particular county has been much obscured by the loose usage of early times, when the style adopted was sometimes that of the noble’s surname (e.g. the Earls Ferrers), sometimes that of his chief seat (e.g. the Earls of Arundel), and sometimes that of the county. Palatine earldoms, or palatinates, were those which possessed regalia, i.e. special privileges delegated by the crown. The two great examples, which dated from Norman times, were Chester and Durham, where the earl and the bishop respectively had their own courts and jurisdiction, and were almost petty sovereigns.