XXX The Incidence of Otosclerosis as Related to Race and Sex

With regard to the sex ratio, it is of interest to note that Politzer,18 who was the first to clearly recognize otosclerosis as a pathological entity and to describe its characteristic histological picture, found among his patients a "slight" predominance of the females over the males. However, at about the same time, Bezold" who studied the clinical picture of otosclerosis noted a much greater preponderance of the females over the males (1.8: 1.0). The majority of the later authors agree with Bezold; Nager" and Cawrhorne" found the same ratio as Bezold. Others noted an even greater predominance of the females: Gray" 2.4: 1.0, Wolff 2.6: 1.0, Sharnbaugh'" 2.2: 1.0, Hlavacek and Chladek 3.35: 1.0. Larssorr'" in a study of the genetic aspects of otosclerosis found among the "original" patients with clinical otosclerosis, who served as the basis for his study, a preponderance of the females over the males of 2.1:1.0 (177 females and 85 males). Among the "secondary" cases, parents and siblings of the patients who represent genetically truly unselected cases, there were out of 748 males and 740 females 85 with clinical otosclerosis. According to Larsson!" the statistical difference between the sexes in the secondary