[Joseph Toynbee--otologist, scientist, philanthropist].

Joseph Tonbee's life's work may be summarized in the words of William Wilde: "The labours and investigations of Mr. Toynbee have affected more for aural pathology than those of all his predecessors either in England or on the continent". Some idea of the extent of his researches is given by the fact that he dissected some 2.

[The tempestuous history of middle ear operation].

The paper is a review of primary and secondary historical and scientific literature concerning the surgical treatment of the middle ear diseases. The development of mastoid surgery can be traced through the past 4 centuries. Once used as a means of evacuating a postauricular abscess, it has evolved to become a method for gaining entry into the middle ear to control acute and chronic ear diseases, or for treatment of otogenic complications.

[The influence of nasal flow aerodynamics on the nasal physiology].

The ability of the human nose to warm and humidify the respiratory air is important to maintaining the internal environment of the lungs, since ambient air is conditioned to nearly alveolar conditions (body temperature and fully saturated with water vapour) upon reaching the nasopharynx. Because of very short time of the inspiratory phase duration, as well as expiratory phase, only the rich vascularization of the nasal mucosa and specific organization of the submucosal vessels are not able to assure such effective physiological activity. Therefore the type of airflow during the respiration is essential to understanding the functional possibilities of the nasal mucosa.

[Proposal of rehabilitation standard after total laryngectomy].

The aim of the paper is to propose a standard program of rehabilitation in patients after total laryngectomy in preoperative, early postoperative period and after the end of laryngological and oncological procedures. During the process of complex rehabilitation the teaching of oesophageal voice mechanism, the improving of respiratory system function, the psychological procedure and the supply of technical equipment must be taken into account. The role of laryngectomee clubs and associations in psychological support is discussed.