title: What generated the creation of the Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde, the predecessor of this journal, 150 years ago?
abstract: At the beginning of 1864, von Tröltsch in Würzburg, Politzer in Vienna, and Schwartze in Halle, published the Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde, the first scientific journal devoted entirely to the diseases of the ear. As a very few details exist about the creation of this journal, three different contextual and influential aspects were studied to understand the generation of this journal: the means to transmit medical knowledge and the respective place of specialized medical journals; the concept of medical specialty and the establishment of otology as a specialty; and the level of otological knowledge and the need to have its proper journal. This research allows one to demonstrate that the creation of the Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde in 1864 arrived at the right historical moment. The timing was contextually appropriate in the general history of medicine and the favorable movement to the creation of medical specialties and specialized journals. It was not an event linked to hazard, but correlated with, first the vacant place laid for a specialized journal in otology, second, otology was almost established but still not recognized as a specialty and third otological knowledge was sufficiently broad to necessitate publishing its progress in its own specialized journal.
authors: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, 801 Welch Road, Stanford, CA, 94305-5739, USA, AMudry@ohns.stanford.edu.
authors: Albert
authors: A
authors: Mudry
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D010036:Otolaryngology / Q000266:history*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000266:history*; D011643:Publishing / Q000266:history*