patients from all over the world. In 1864 Politzer was allowed by the government to treat indigent patients at the charity hospital as well as in the homes for elderly. He and Gruber received the title of professor extraordinarius in 1870 and were appointed to the rank of a joint directorship to a new clinic in the Vienna General Hospital, in the next year (the first of its kind in the world). In 1895 Politzer won a full professorship and became the sole director of the clinic in 1889, until 1907. He died 13 years later, in 1920, at the age of 85, celebrated as one of the pioneers of modern otology in the history of medicine, but unfortunately in a poor financial condition, due to the economic crisis in Austria after the country was defeated in the First World War. Works Politzer was a prolific inventor of new medical devices for the diagnosis and treatment of ear diseases. He developed several surgical instruments which bear his name for the operation of the outer and the inner ear structures, such as an ear perforator, a surgical knife, a grommet for the ventilation of the middle ear after tympanocentesis, as well as a method to restore permeability to the Eustachian tube by using an insufflator made out of a pear-shaped rubber bag ("politzerisation" or Politzer's method). He also devised methods and apparatuses to examine the outer ear canal and tympanic membrane (Politzer's otoscope), a speculum and a qualitative test for the function of the Eustachian tube. In the field of hearing, Politzer devised an acoumeter for measuring hearing acuity and at least two early acoustical hearing aids. Furthermore, he revolutionised the clinical diagnosis of aural diseases by the inspection of the illuminated tympanic membrane (which led to the current otoscope), and developed the first illustrated atlas of the tympanic membrane in health and disease, with color drawings made by himself. Politzer also wrote one of the most outstanding and authoritative textbooks on otology of the century, the Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde, in 1878. With von Troeltsch and Hermann Schwartze, he founded Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde, the first journal dedicated to ear disorders. A great anatomist of the auditory system, Politzer wrote and illustrated extensively on it, and left a remarkable collection of anatomic and pathological specimens in Vienna, which were donated to the Anatomy and Pathology Museum. The luminous cone of the tympanic