IMPORTANT. 
Sound W/ves in the Treatment of Deaf- 
ness and Tinnitus Aurium. 
A DEFENSE. Sound Wavesdnrtire Treatment of Deaf- 
ness and Tinnitus Aurium. 
The following appeared in the Washington Sunday Post of No- 
vember i, 1891: 
“New Use for Phonographs. 
“Prof. H. P\ Garey, of the Department of Eye and Ear Dis- 
eases in the Southern Homoeopathic Medical College, Baltimore, 
has been experimenting for several months with the phonograph 
as an instrument of treatment for deafness caused by catarrh. The 
results so far have been highly satisfactory, and Dr. Garey’s ex- 
periments may revolutionize cures of that character.’’ 
And 011 Monday, November 2, 1891, another article appeared in 
the Washington Evening Star as follows: 
“New Way to Cure Deafness. 
“Prof. H. P\ Garey, M. D., of the Department of Eye and Ear 
Diseases in the Southern Homoeopathic College, Baltimore, has 
been engaged for the past three months experimenting with the 
phonograph in the treatment of deafness caused by catarrh. The 
large clinic in the dispensary of the college is being utilized with 
results, it is said, which promise to revolutionize the treatment of 
deafness. Dr. Garey says that while it is yet too soon to present 
to the profession his results achieved so far, because time enough 
has not elapsed to confirm the cures already made, yet he feels 
warranted in stating that those who /are deaf and harassed by 
noises in the head (tinnibus surium) have much to encourage 
them to hope that Edison’s wonderful phonograph will prove the 
greatest benefactor to the human race in this age of progress. 
(Tinnibus surium was as printed in original article.) 
As I was the first to discover and apply sound as a therapeutic 
agent in deafness and tinnitus aurium, I was anxious in view of 
facts referred to later on in this article to learn who had caused 
the issuance of said paragraphs. To that end I visited the office 
of the Sunday Post, and upon inquiry was told the name of the 2 
party. Upon visiting the individual and asking if he was respon- 
sible for them, he replied, “no, I am not responsible for them, 
they were sent from Baltimore by Dr. Garey to me for publication,” 
whereupon I wrote the following to Dr. Garey : 
“Washington, D. C., November 2, 1891. 
“Dr. H. F. Garey, Baltimore, Md. 
“Dear Sir: The following appeared in the Sunday Post, of 
this city, yesterday : ‘ Prof. H. F. Garey, of the Department of 
Eye and Ear Diseases in the Southern Homoeopathic College, 
Baltimore, has been experimenting for several months with the 
phonograph as an instrument of treatment for deafness caused by 
catarrh. The results so far have been highly satisfactory, and 
Dr. Garey’s experiments may revolutionize cures of that character.’ 
As I was the first discoverer and first to apply the human voice 
through an instrument to relieve deafness, the same having been 
for years designated by me ‘ Otacoustic Treatment,’ and known to 
leading practitioners of both schools of medicine, I think the lan- 
guage ‘ instrument of treatment for deafness ’ caused by catarrh, 
coupled with an agent utilizing the power of articulate sounds for 
results, and the further language, ‘ Dr. Garey’s experiments may 
revolutionize cures of that character, ’ are unfair to me. Upon read- 
ing the article I was about to write an answer thereto that laymen 
might know where credit for this discovery belongs, and for evi- 
dence of priority I intended publishing Dr. Drane’s letter to me. 
“Upon reflection I determined first to write to you and state 
my objection to other parties making statements in your interests 
which are not borne out by the facts. 
“ Yours, etc., 
“(Signed.) J. A. Maloney.” 
This was written before the article in the Star appeared, but 
was not mailed. Upon reading said article I appended a post- 
script calling Dr. G’s. attention to it, and again stated I would 
await his answer. 
Dr. G. did not reply, and on December 12, 1891, I addressed a 
letter to Dr. Henry Chandlee, Registrar of Southern Homoeo- 
pathic Medical College, Baltimore, Md., as follows : 
“Dear Sir: On November 1st and 2d, advertisements ap- 
peared in the Evening Star and Washington Post in which Dr. 
Garey, of your city, and a member of your faculty was announced 
as the discoverer of an instrument of sound for deafness and tin- 
nitus aurium. Upon investigation I was told by the party pub- 
lishing said matter ‘ that they were sent from Baltimore by Dr. 
Garey for publication.’ I then addressed a letter to Dr. Garey 
against his assumption, because I was known as the discoverer of 3 
‘Otacoustic Treatment’ (the title speaks for itself), and the fact 
was known to Dr. Garey because of his being present in Washing- 
ton with Dr. Drane on December 17, 1890, when I examined Dr. 
D. and prescribed 1 Otacoustic Treatment.’ Dr. Garey paid no 
attention to my letter, but stated to a mutual friend that you 
would answer it. Not having heard from you, and learning that 
an employe of my informant had written a letter assuming respon- 
sibility for said publications, which had been accepted as conclu- 
sive evidence of Dr. Garey’s innocence, I prepared an article for 
publication, and it went so far as ‘ galley proof,’ when my friends 
in your school of medicine prevailed upon me to withhold said pub- 
lication until after the meeting of ‘Clinical Society,’ when Drs. 
Drane and Garey would call the matter up. This has not been 
done, and before I issue said pamphlet I desire to lay the follow- 
ing facts before you: 
“ 1. By said publications a wrong was done me by Dr. Garey 
arrogating to himself originality of idea already vested in me. 
“ 2. No disclaimer of intentional wrong to me upon part of Dr. 
Garey up to this date. 
“3. In the investigation of said advertisements the proceeding 
was ex-parte and no chance given me to present facts unknown to 
you. 
“ 4 Accepting the statement of the agent in Baltimore alone for 
purposes of exoneration. 
“5. The indifference to a wrong done, and silence upon every 
thing save that which would exonerate Dr. Garey and fair name 
of your college. 
“6. Between man and man I was entitled to some consideration 
in the matter, not expecting it upon professional grounds, because 
I am known as an old-school graduate. * 
“7. Because your reputation for fairness should not have allowed 
you to be a party to settlement of a question entirely on ex parte 
proof. 
“ Aside from the foregoing, which is personal to me, I have heard 
that Dr. W. R. King, who is of your school of medicine, has been 
charged with having an interest in my method of treatment. This 
treatment speaks for itself, and for Dr. King I will say that a more 
honorable man does not live. When I first met him (occasion of 
seeing first patient for him) I tendered him a portion of my fee, 
which he firmly but in a dignified manner declined, saying: ‘ I 
shall select from my practice typical cases for your treatment. If 
successful I shall publish them for the benefit of Homoeopathy; 
that is the only interest I care to have.’ His publication in the 
Hahnemannian Monthly for July, 1890, proves the truthfulness of 
Dr. K.’s position as defined by him after my seeing the first patient 
sent by him. I shall not comment upon this act of injustice to 
Dr. King, but will only say that in regard to wrong done me I 4 
propose some reparation shall be made. If not, I shall take steps 
to present my side of the case to the fair-minded members of your 
school of medicine.” Yours, etc., 
“(Signed.) J. A. Maloney.” 
On January i, 1892, I received the following reply : 
“The Southern Homceopathic Medical College 
of Baltimore, Md. 
F. C. Drane, M.D., Dean, Henry Chandlee, M.D., Registrar, 
1001 W. Lanvale St. 1019 Linden Ave. 
“Baltimore, January i, 1892. 
“ Dr. J. A. Maloney. 
“Dear Sir: Your communication of December 12, 1891, was 
duly received, and all the facts in the case were carefully con- 
sidered at a special meeting of the Faculty held December 28. 
‘ ‘ The evidence was conclusive that Dr. Garey was not guilty of 
intentional or other injury to you. Should you persist in pursu- 
ing the matter further, as intimated, or should you in any manner 
attempt to injure the name of the college by attacks upon the 
Faculty or individual members thereof, you will be held to strict 
account for the same and also for the false charges made against 
Dr. Garey in }mur communication of December 12. 
“ Yours, etc., 
“(Signed.) Henry Chandlee, 
“ Registrar. 
“ By direction of the Faculty. 
'‘'December 28, 1891.” 
In the January, 1892, number of Southern Journal oj Homoe- 
opathy appears an article by Dr. Garey entitled— 
“Sound Waves in the Treatment of Aural Diseases. 
“ BY HENRY F. GAREY, M.D., BALTIMORE, MD. 
‘ ‘ Owing to a premature publication in the public press by the 
Columbia Phonograph Co., of Maryland and District of Colum- 
bia, without my consent, the necessity presents itself of announc- 
ing to the medical profession, through the Southern Homoeopathic 
Medical Association, that for some time past I have been experi- 
menting with sound waves in the treatment of tinnitus aurium 
(the result of catarrhal deafness), especially, but in other forms 
of internal ear trouble as well. 
“The results attained so far have been very gratifying, and in 
some cases almost marvelous. The phonograph of Edison has 
been the medium used to produce the sound waves adapted to 
each case (but articulated sound oj the human voice is never used), 5 
and the clinic of the Southern Homoeopathic Medical College 
affords abundant material for experimentation. 
‘ ‘ Being desirous that the Homoeopathic profession shall receive 
the credit of this discovery, based as it is upon Homoeopathic 
principles, this announcement is made in order to establish 
precedence.” 
It will be observed that the publications in Washington papers 
on November ist and 2d, respectively, are stated in the fore- 
going article to have been premature and without Dr. Garey’s 
consent. On February 15, 1892, one month later, the following 
appeared in Philadelphia papers: 
[From The Press, February 15, 1892.] 
‘‘New Cure for Deafness. 
“A Baltimore Professor demonstrates another use for the Phonograph. 
‘‘Baltimore, Feb. 14.—At the Southern Homoeopathic Medical 
College a public demonstration was given yesterday of the uses 
of the phonograph for the cure of deafness, a discovery made by 
Dr. H. F. Garey, a professor in the college. 
‘‘Seated at a phonograph, with rubber tubes in their ears, were 
a number of persons of both sexes, and an exposition of the 
principles of the treatment was given. It is the massage of those 
parts of the ear which transmit sound into the brain. The pho- 
nograph produces this result by giving continuous and successive 
vibrations at regular intervals. This it does with certain degrees 
of intensity and frequency, according to the exigencies of the 
case under treatment. 
“In bad cases a series of intensified shocks, at the rate of one 
to the second, is produced against the membraneous tympanum, 
or drum. In cases of not over five years’ standing the vibrations 
are given with more frequency and less intensity. The noises or 
thumps so made are given by means of depressions made with a 
stylus at regular intervals in the wax surface of the phonographic 
cylinders. 
‘ ‘ Every depression causes the little transmitter needle in the 
instrument to strike the diaphragm connected with the phono- 
graph, and to produce the same distressing noises which a deaf 
person continually hears within his brain. The intensity of the 
noises is regulated by the way that the depressions are made in 
the cylinder and their frequency by the number of revolutions per 
minute given the latter. 
‘ ‘ All patients who are under treatment for deafness at the col- 
lege reported that they are greatly benefited.” 6 
[From The Record, February 15, 1892.] 
“Deaf Hear By Phonograph. 
“ Novel Method of Teaching Those Whose Ears are Dumb. 
“Baltimore, Md., Feb. 14.—At the Southern Homoeopathic 
Medical College, a public demonstration was given yesterday of 
the uses of the phonograph for the cure of deafness, a discovery 
made by Dr. H. F. Garey, professor in the Eye and Ear division 
of the college. The deaf patients seated themselves about the 
phonograph, holding the rubber tubes to their ears. The sounds 
and vibrations in the phonograph were made slowly and very loud 
and repeated until the patients caught the sense.” 
No report of this appeared in Baltimore papers, although the 
clinic was held there. 
Having presented Dr. Garey’s attempts to pose as a discoverer 
of a “New Cure For Deafness,” of “ Massage of those parts of 
the ear which transmits sound into the brain,” and further, “ and 
sound wave in the treatment of tinnitus aurium,” I will now lay 
before the reader the reasons for my protests against the pretense 
set up by Dr. Garey for his broad claim as discovering ‘ ‘ Sound 
Waves in the Treatment of Aural Diseases.” 
On April 6, 1887, I addressed the College of Physicians of 
Philadelphia (by request), and in the course of my remarks I stated 
that the Otophone (means employed by me) ‘ ‘ was a restoi'ativc 
agent by means of exercise through the natural means, i. e., the 
voice, which at the same time overcomes the sluggishness or dull- 
ness of the percipient tract. * * * I will refer in conclusion 
to the advantages in both training and constant use of the instru- 
ment from stimulating the auditory nerve. The mechanical 
stimulation by the wave motion of the lymph of the labyrinth can 
not be brought about in many merely by dependence upon the 
power of the unaided voice. ’ ’ (See Transactions of the College 
of Physicians, Third Series, Vol. IX, Phila., 1887.) 
Did I not refer to ‘ ‘ Massage of those parts of the ear which 
transmit sound into the brain ’ ’ ? 
Was not this “Sound Waves in the Treatment of Aural Dis- 
eases ’ ’ ? 
On July 19, 1887, the results of my tests were laid before the 
“American Otological Society,” at their annual meeting, New 
Eondon, Conn. During the discussion which followed, Dr. C. H. 
Burnett, of Philadelphia, spoke as follows of one case tested by me 
at his office : 7 
‘ ‘ When he came into the office he heard absolutely nothing when 
the mouth was placed near the ear. He heard very imperfectly 
through the ordinary tin tube which he had in his hand. We then 
tried the Otophone and he immediately heard fairly well. After 
exercising with this for fifteen or twenty minutes he heard with his 
eyes closed the unaided voice when the mouth was at least a foot 
from the ear. This person is entirely beyond self-deception. After 
the ossicles had tints been passively moved to a certain extent he cer- 
tainly heard the voice a foot from the ear." (The italics are mine.) 
(See Transactions of the American Otological Society, Twentieth 
Meeting, July 19, 1887, Vol. IV, Part I.) 
Did I not refer to ‘ ‘ Massage of those parts of the ear which 
transmit sound into the brain” ? 
Was not this “Sound Waves in the treatment of Aural Dis- 
eases” ? 
In 1888 I issued a pamphlet to the medical profession, entitled 
“ Relief for the Deaf by means of Otacoustic Treatment,” copies 
of which were sent to physicians in all the large cities (certainly to 
the sister city, Baltimore) in which I stated: 
‘ ‘ Since the introduction of my method and means for relief of 
the deaf I have addressed myself exclusively to the medical pro- 
fession, and the encouragement received from some of the most 
eminent specialists and general practitioners in this country, and 
particularly the success attending the use of No. 3 Otophone, in 
connection with treatment as a restorative agent, has exceeded my 
expectations, improvement being marked in cases ranging from 
fifteen to thirty years standing. * * * * 
‘ ‘ My aim is to have instrument meet requirements of sound to 
sensation in each case ” * * * 
(Dr. Garey seems to lay great stress upon requirements of sound 
to sensation, but here was suggestion made four years ago.) 
“ In many cases belonging to that large class of middle ear dis- 
eases of catarrhal origin there is to be found a condition of immo- 
bility which is not due solely to tissue changes resultant upon the 
inflammatory process, but is largely dependent upon disuse; and 
also where the immobility results from tissue changes, a judicious 
use of the instrument as effecting passive motion is of great service. ’ ’ 
Among the cases cited are two in particular. 
“ Mrs. Mc.C.—Her physician reports it a comfort to her family 
and improvement to patient by its use. In this case timiitus aurium 
eeased. ’ ’ 
(Italics were used in original.) 8 
“Mrs. R.—After one month’s use of instrument as a thera- 
peutic agent, could hear conversations at table and tinnitus aurium 
ceased. ’ ’ 
(Italics were used in original.) 
After the publication of proceedings of the American Otological 
Society before mentioned, Dr. W. R. King, of Washington, began 
sending his intractable cases, and after eight cases had been 
treated he published the results under heading— 
i 
“ Otacoustic Treatment as an Adjunct to Former 
Methods of Treating Deafness. 
“ BY W. R. KING, M. D., OTOLOGIST AND OPHTHALMOLOGIST TO NATIONAL 
HOMOEOPATHIC HOSPITAL, AND HOMOEOPATHIC FREE 
DISPENSARY, WASHINGTON, D. C.” 
In opening the article Dr. King says : 
“ Some two years since, my attention was drawn to an account 
of a meeting of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia, at which 
this subject was presented to that body by the discoverer, Mr. J. 
A. Maloney, of this city, and afterwards my attention was again 
drawn to it by a publication of its presentation and discussion be- 
fore the American Otological Society at New Dondon, Connecti- 
cut. As the discoverer resided in this city, I determined to have 
a personal interview with him, and, at my request, he called and 
explained his method and means. It having been presented with 
clearness and a knowledge of physiological acoustics satisfactory to 
me, I determined to give it a fair and impartial trial, and with 
that end in view I selected cases of a typical nature as they pre- 
sented themselves, believing that the best mode of procedure for 
a crucial test. The results of which, up to this time, I am pleased 
to report as follows : ’ ’ 
After enumerating cases, with results, Dr. King closes as fol- 
lows: 
‘ ‘ The above cases were selected mainly because they are strictly 
typical and many of them represent profound degrees of deafness, 
in the most common class of cases; those wherein the conducting 
apparatus of the ear is at fault; and because in the majority of 
these cases careful local and medicinal treatment had been given 
for a longer or shorter period with little or no result; benefit of a 
marked and permanent nature only following the addition of ota- 
coustic treatment to that already in use.” (See The Hahneman- 
nian Monthly, July, 1890, Vol. XXV, No. 7.) 9 
Following this article of Dr. King I published a new edition of 
my pamphlet in October, 1890, in the opening of which I say: 
“To the Medical Profession. 
“Several years since, while experimenting in the field of acous- 
tics, it occurred to me that a special field of labor was open in 
‘physiological acoustics,’ and that I might by a new field of exami- 
nation discover wherein the ear fails to convey to the auditory 
nerve composite-sound sensations, and compensate for the same by 
the scientific application of the principles of aural mechanics; and 
after months of experiment the Otophone was developed, and from 
its marvelous power of awakening latent hearing grew its thera- 
peutic value. This then was reduced to a system, and is known 
as ‘Otacoustic Treatment.’ ’’ 
I herein give a reprint from Dr. King’s article, and it will be 
found upon examination of the cases referred to that results were 
not confined to improvement of hearing; but referred to tinnitus 
aurium as well, and in conclusion I say: 
“Otacoustic Treatment supplies a long-felt want, inasmuch as 
it addresses itself not only to the perceptive tract, but to the trans- 
mitting mechanism, thereby stimulating the auditory nerve and 
overcoming atrophy due to disuse. Again, adhesions or partial 
anchylosis of ossicula are gradually diminished and mobility re- 
stored, thus reaching the transmitting mechanism.'" 
(The italics were in original.) 
Following the article by Dr. King and issuance of the last cir- 
cular came the following letter from Dr. F. C. Drane of Baltimore, 
now Dean of the Southern Homoeopathic College in that city: 
“ Dr. F. C. Drane, 
“1001 West Lanvale Street, 
“Baltimore, Md., Aug. 18, 1890. 
J. A. Maloney, Esq., 
Washington, D. C. 
“Dear Sir: I wrote you some months ago relative to your ‘ Ota- 
coustic Treatment, ’ and suggested that you make some arrange- 
ment with our leading specialist here in eye and ear diseases, Dr. 
H. F. Garey, No. 411 North Charles street, but he tells me he 
never heard from you, although he knows there is a large field 
here for you if you have ever as good a thing as Dr. King repre- 
sented in his article in the Hahnemannian Monthly, and I would 
again advise you to write Dr. Garey, as he has a large private and 
dispensary practice here. Yours truly, 
“(Signed) F. C. Drane, M. D.’’ 10 
On December 17, 1890, I received a telephone message from Dr. 
W. R. King, 812 Eleventh street, this city, to call at his office 
within an hour and see a patient. Upon going there I found Dr. 
F. C. Drane, of Baltimore, Dean Southern Homoeopathic Medical 
College, accompanied by Dr. Henry F. Garey. I was informed bj' 
Dr. King that Dr. Drane was the patient. After examination and 
tests I prescribed “ Otacoustic Treatment” and gave written in- 
structions for same. 
In the article by Dr. Garey in January, 1892, number of South- 
ern Journal Homoeopathy, already referred to, appears this sentence 
in italics and used parenthetically, “ but articulated sound of the 
human voice is never used.” 
This is the method which has been preferably used by me, and 
I presume is the reason for being set up in italics. 
In the same article he says: 
“ I have been experimenting with sound waves in the treatment 
of tinnitus aurium (the result of catarrhal deafness especially), but 
in other forms of internal ear troubles as well.” 
My treatment of tinnitus aurium, before quoted, was by means 
of sound waves, unless Dr. Garey holds that sound waves are not a 
factor in articulate sounds. 
Again he says: 
“ The phonograph of Edison has been the medium used to pro- 
duce the sound waves adapted to each case.” 
In the Medical Recordiox November 17, 1888, page 589, will be 
found an article by me, ‘‘A Study in Physiological Acoustics, 
Preliminary Notice,” which sets forth the use of a sound-re- 
cording instrument or phonograph as applied to defective audition, 
and in my concluding remarks I say: 
‘‘The second part of my investigations, which is not yet com- 
plete, will, I hope, prove more interesting as an attempt to solve 
some of the mysteries of audition by addressing the unexplained 
working of the mechanism of the middle ear for clues to abnor- 
mities which may be due entirely to changes in the middle ear 
hitherto unsuspected.” 
Also the following from the New York Medical Journal, August 
11, 1888: 11 
“ The Sphenoid Bone: Some of its Possible Functions. 
“by J. A. MALONEY. 
“ In making tests to ascertain the conditions of those with im- 
paired audition, preparatory to applying an Otophone in the case, 
either as a restorative agent or simply as an aid, I have been very 
much impressed with a singular effect in some cases of profound 
hardness of hearing when I had reason to suspect partial anky- 
losis of the ossicula, or adhesions of the- same resulting from ca- 
tarrh of the middle ear. ’ ’ 
In view of the foregoing I desire to call attention to the following: 
1. That in 1887 I announced to the world the discovery by me 
that sound systematically applied was a therapeutic agent in deaf- 
ness and tinnitus aurium. 
2. That sound was applied by me for relief of deafness due to 
catarrh and so stated by me in circular of 1888 addressed to the 
medical profession as follows: 
‘ ‘ In many cases belonging to that large class of middle ear dis- 
eases of catarrhal origin, there is to be found a condition of immo- 
bility which is not due solely to tissue changes resultant upon the 
inflammatory process.” 
3. That sound as a therapeutic agent in tinnitus aurium was 
used by me before the issuance of said circular, as the following ex- 
tract shows: 
11 Mrs. McC.—Her physician reports it a comfort to her family 
and improvement to patient by its use. In this case tmnitus aurium 
ceased. 
11 Mrs. R.—After one month’s use of instrument as a therapeutic 
agent, could hear conversation at table and tinnitus aurium ceased.’ ’ 
4. Confirmation of these statements by Dr. King’s article in 
Hahnemannian Monthly for July, 1890. 
5. Dr. F. C. Drane’s letter of August 18, 1890, on behalf of Dr. 
Garey. 
6. Dr. Garey’s visit with Dr. Drane to me December 17, 1890. 
7. I was the first to use sound waves adapted to each case, as in 
said pamphlet I stated : “ My aim is to have instrument meet re- 
quirements of sound to sensation in each case.” 
8. I was the first to use a phonograph in defective audition. 12 
I leave the fair-minded reader to determine what Dr. Garey has 
discovered, and regret being forced to adopt this course of making 
known a wrong perpetrated and persisted in. I desire to call 
attention particularly to the phrasing of the articles in Dr. Garey’s 
interest, they being misleading, in that they attempt to clothe him 
with originality of idea in the use of sound waves in the treatment 
of aural diseases. 
Dr. Garey has simply made an adaptation of ‘ ‘ Similia Similibus 
Curant-ur” to sound as a therapeutic agent first discovered and 
used by me; but even in that he is met for originality of idea by 
the genius of his school of medicine, Hahnemann, for his credit 
can not be limited any more than mine by mere application. 
In the four years of my labors in “Otacoustic Treatment” I 
have never said anything relative to it except through the medi- 
cal press or to the profession through a pamphlet, and have never 
attempted to reach the laity through the lay press by such subter- 
fuges as “ an interview ” or “inviting a reporter to be present.” 
J. A. MALONEY, M.D. 
1424 Q Street N. W. 
WASHINGTON, U. C. 
March 1, 1892.