Joseph Toynbee FRS (30 December 1815"Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-22 for Joseph Toynbee: Stow - Tytler (Vol 19), p. 1065."
Ancestry.com, 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2020. – 7 July 1866) was an English

Otologist Otology is a branch of medicine which studies normal and pathological anatomy and physiology of the ear (hearing and vestibular sensory systems and related structures and functions) as well as their diseases, diagnosis and treatment. Otologic ...

, whose career was dedicated to

pathological Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in th ...

and

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

studies of the ear.

Personal life

Joseph Toynbee was born in

Heckington Heckington is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated between Sleaford and Swineshead Bridge, and south of the A17 road. Heckington, with 1,491 households, is one of the largest vill ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

on 30 December 1815, and baptised there on 2 January 1816. He was the third son of fifteen children of the wealthy land owner and farmer George Toynbee (1783–1865). George's first wife and the mother of Joseph, was Elizabeth, (maiden surname of Cullen, 1785–1820). Joseph's parents were married at

Bracebridge, Lincolnshire Bracebridge is a suburb of the city and county town of Lincoln, England. It is situated approximately south from the city centre on the main A1434 Newark Road, stretching approximately from St Catherine's to Swallowbeck alongside the east ba ...

, on 21 May 1811, by Licence. After several years of private tuition, he attended

King's Lynn Grammar School King Edward VII Academy (known as KES Academy) is a large, mixed comprehensive secondary school in Gaywood Road ( A148), King's Lynn, Norfolk, England with around 1,300 pupils, including about 300 in sixth form education. Prior to the school ye ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. At the age of seventeen he studied medicine. His first experience in medicine came when he was apprenticed to William Wade of the Westminster General Dispensary in Gerrard Street in London's

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

. He studied anatomy under George Derby Dermott (1802–1847) at Hunterian Medical School at the

Great Windmill Street Great Windmill Street is a thoroughfare running north–south in Soho, London, crossed by Shaftesbury Avenue. The street has had a long association with music and entertainment, most notably the Windmill Theatre, and is now home to the Ripley ...

, and later gained a reputation as a

prosector A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and p ...

. Joseph married Harriet Holmes, a daughter of Nathaniel Reynolds Holmes, on 4 August 1846, at St John's Church, Hampstead. The couple were married by Licence. They had nine children together, including

economic historian Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and ins ...

Arnold Toynbee (1852–1883), and the bacteriologist

Grace Frankland Grace Coleridge Frankland known as Mrs Percy Frankland ''née'' Grace Toynbee (4 December 1858 – 5 October 1946) was an English microbiologist. She was one of the nineteen female scientists who wrote the 1904 petition to the Chemical Society t ...

(née Toynbee).Cohen, S. (23 September 2004). Frankland ée Toynbee Grace Coleridge (1858–1946), bacteriologist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 30 Jan. 2018, se
link
/ref> Another son, Harry Valpy Toynbee (1861–1941), was the father of universal historian

Arnold J. Toynbee Arnold Joseph Toynbee (; 14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's Colleg ...

, and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and art historian

Jocelyn Toynbee Jocelyn Mary Catherine Toynbee, (3 March 1897 – 31 December 1985) was an English archaeologist and art historian. "In the mid-twentieth century she was the leading British scholar in Roman artistic studies and one of the recognized authoriti ...

. He died on 7 July 1866, at 18,

Saville Row Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...

, Mayfair, while conducting experiments with

prussic acid Hydrogen cyanide, sometimes called prussic acid, is a chemical compound with the formula HCN and structure . It is a colorless, extremely poisonous, and flammable liquid that boils slightly above room temperature, at . HCN is produced on an in ...

and

chloroform Chloroform, or trichloromethane, is an organic compound with chemical formula, formula Carbon, CHydrogen, HChlorine, Cl3 and a common organic solvent. It is a colorless, strong-smelling, dense liquid produced on a large scale as a precursor to ...

as a remedy for

tinnitus Tinnitus is the perception of sound when no corresponding external sound is present. Nearly everyone experiences a faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely quiet room; but it is of concern only if it is bothersome, interferes with normal hearin ...

. Either one of these substances or their combination is to blame for his death. He was buried at

St Mary's Church, Wimbledon St Mary's Church, Wimbledon, is a Church of England church and is part of the Parish of Wimbledon, south-west London, England. It has existed since the 12th century and may be the church recorded in the Domesday Book in the Mortlake Hundred. It ...

, on 11 July 1866. Joseph's residence on the burial register was listed as Wimbledon. He lived at Beech Holme, Wimbledon.

Career

He performed studies on the functionality of the Eustachian tube and of the

tympanic membrane In the anatomy of humans and various other tetrapods, the eardrum, also called the tympanic membrane or myringa, is a thin, cone-shaped membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear. Its function is to transmit sound from the a ...

and tried to restore attempts, the

tympanoplasty Tympanoplasty is the surgical operation performed to reconstruct hearing mechanism of middle ear Classification Tympanoplasty is classified into five different types, originally described by Horst Ludwig Wullstein (1906–1987) in 1956. # Type ...

. When St. Mary's Hospital was founded in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

, he a became an aural surgeon and a lecturer on ear diseases – his course of clinical lectures being published in 1855 and 1866. During this time period he composed two major works: "A Descriptive Catalogue of Preparations Illustrative of the Diseases of the Ear" (1857), and "The Diseases of the Ear: Their Nature, Diagnosis and Treatment" (1860). From his many dissections of "deaf ears", he studied

ankylosis Ankylosis is a stiffness of a joint due to abnormal adhesion and rigidity of the bones of the joint, which may be the result of injury or disease. The rigidity may be complete or partial and may be due to inflammation of the tendinous or muscular ...

of the

stapes The ''stapes'' or stirrup is a bone in the middle ear of humans and other animals which is involved in the conduction of sound vibrations to the inner ear. This bone is connected to the oval window by its annular ligament, which allows the foo ...

JosephToynbee; Trommelfell-Prothese Skizze

He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in March 1842. Austrian otologist

Adam Politzer Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Book of Genesis, Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a coll ...

(1835–1920) penned biographies in French (1905) and German (1914) honoring Toynbee, whom Politzer regarded as a major influence.

Works

* ''On the structure of the membrana tympani in the human ear.'' Richard Taylor, London 1851 * ''On the use of an artificial membrana tympani in cases of deafness : dependent upon perforation or destruction of the natural organ.'' J. Churchill, London 1857 * ''A Descriptive Catalogue of Preparations illustrative of the Diseases of the Ear in the Museum of Joseph Toynbee.'' J. Churchill, London 1857 * ''The Diseases of the Ear: Their Nature, Diagnosis, and Treatment.'' Blanchard and Lea, 1860 * ''Hints on the Formation of Local Museums.'' Robert Hardwicke, 1863

References

External links

''Sketches of Otohistory; Origins of Otology in the British Isles: Wilde and Toynbee''
by Joseph E Hawkins

by Dr. Albert Mudry *

Toynbee genealogy