Diseases Of The Nose Throat And Ear

feREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION^

x^k.

It is just over fifty years since Logan Turner, with the collaboration of the
teaching staff of the Edinburgh Ear, Nose and Throat Department, published
the first edition of this textbook. Its aim was to provide a comprehensive
survey of the specialty for senior students and general practitioners. During
successive editions this aim has been widened and the book enlarged to form a
more detailed introduction to the specialty for postgraduates embarking on a
career in otolaryngology.

In the preparation of this edition much thought has been given to the scope
of the book. If it were to continue as a postgraduate preparation for the
Fellowships it would require very considerable expansion, and might lose its
individuality. On the other hand, the time allocated by the various universities
for the teaching of otolaryngology is so curtailed, and the technical expansion
of the specialty is now so great, that there is little time for the student to learn,
with any degree of understanding, the basic principles far less the ramifications
of the specialty. This is reflected in general practice, and many trainees eagerly
embrace the opportunity of attending routine clinics to learn more about the
conditions commonly met with in practice. Many have sought a book which,
while covering the specialty, would deal with its basic principles.

It has been decided that this edition should revert to the original aim of the
book, and it has been rewritten for house officers, registrars in their first year
and general practitioners specifically while retaining brief notes on the more
uncommon conditions. The detailed anatomical descriptions, which have
always been a feature, have been simplified to a greater or lesser degree.
Teaching in anatomy has changed over the years, and our intention has been
to stress the more salient features and to discard the minutiae. The anatomical
chapter on the ear remains more detailed, deliberately so because micro-
surgery has given it greater practical prominence, and reports on operations
to general practitioners often assume their knowledge of the structure of the
middle and inner ears. In the same way different sections place different
emphasis on practical physiology, and again, that of the ear is most detailed.

Throughout the book an attempt has been made to achieve an essentially
practical approach, to explain modern investigations, to discuss basic
principles, to analyse the reasons for treatment and to give some positive
answers to the questions which patients may ask of their general practitioners
or of junior hospital staff. Some of the more simple procedures of treatment
which are commonly carried out hi hospital or in general practice are fully
described, but the details of operations have given place to the aims of surgical
treatment.

As in all previous editions the contributors are in active practice in the
specialty in Edinburgh. I have been honoured by being invited by the authors
of the previous edition to act as Editor, and I have undertaken the section on
the nose and sinuses. George McDowall continues to be responsible for part
of otology and is joined by Kenneth McLay in writing this section. John
McCallum has taken over the pharynx and nasopharynx, and Arnold Maran
has rewritten the sections on the larynx, bronchi and oesophagus.

About a hundred of the old illustrations have been discarded and there are
some seventy new illustrations, many of them line drawings by Robert