Antonio Scarpa and the discovery of the membranous inner ear

Objective: To give a historical perspective of Antonio Scarpa's contributio ns to otology. specifically the discovery of the inner ear organs as the fo undation for the experimental work that followed. Background/Method: Scarpa's original descriptions of the human inner ear we re translated from the Latin text, and his illustrations were analyzed and compared with current knowledge. Conclusions: Antonio Scarpa's anatomic and clinical studies place him among the great scientists of the eighteenth century. His discoveries about the inner ear established the limit of what could be learned without advanced h istologic techniques and provided the foundation for the work that eventual ly led to the modern understanding of ear physiology.