Adam Politzer, the first professor of otology at the University of Vienna, was born in Alberti, Hungary, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant.1 Politzer showed an unusual interest in diseases of the ear while preparing for a medical career at the university; there Skoda, Rokitansky, Oppolzer, Ludwig, and other notable teachers and investigators were members of the faculty. While at the Physiological Institute directed by Ludwig, and before completing his medical studies, Politzer described the innervation of the intrinsic muscles of the ear and the variations in air pressure on the tympanic cavity. After receiving his doctorate in medicine and surgery in 1859, Politzer left Vienna to continue his studies on the anatomy, physiology. and pathology of the organs of hearing with Kölliker and Tröltsch in Würzburg, with Helmholtz in Heidelberg, with Claude Bernard and Prosper Ménière in Paris, and with Toynbee in London. Returning to Vienna in