This work did more to place British otology on a scientific basis than anything previously published. In his own words, Wilde “laboured to rescue the treatment of ear diseases from empiricism and found it upon the well-established laws of modern pathology, practical surgery, and reasonable therapeutics”. He showed the middle ear to be the site of origin of most of the diseases of the ear. He is remembered for his method of treating acute mastoiditis, using “Wilde’s incision”. The book was bitterly attacked by Kramer – see especially Lancet, 1853, 2, 446 – and also by Thomas Wakley, editor of that journal. Wilde was the father of Oscar Wilde.