Twenty-five years have elapsed since I commenced this line of practice; and I have every reason to be satisfied with what I have accomplished in that period. I leave it to the profession to say what was the state of aural surgery before I commenced practice, and what had been done to increase our knowledge of the diseases which affect that organ, and the treatment which should be adopted. I have been followed by many persons of talent not only in this country, but on the Continent, both by regular and irregular members of the profession, and I have had the gratification to know that I have rendered much service to many of my fellow-creatures from the highest to the lowest, and have mitigated such human suffering. From the intercourse I have had with the heads of profession in this country and on the Continent, I have obtained that information which does not fall to the lot of many; and if I look back with satisfaction to what I have accomplished in the last twenty-five years, I look forward with pleasure to what I may accomplish in the next twenty-five years, should God spare my life.

–John Harrison Curtis, On the Cephaloscope (1842)