Preventing Deafness: Two Medical Approaches

Abstract

The cultural climate of early twentieth century Britain combined eugenic and economic factors which threatened the well-being and status of all kinds of deafened people. In this context we discuss two otologists’ attempts to (re)medicalise deafness with a new emphasis on how to prevent rather than cure it. We look at Percival MacLeod Yearsley of London and his eugenic obsession with the small minority for which deafness was allegedly heritable and the Glasgow-based James Kerr Love who aimed to show that most acquired deafness arose from health factors relating to poverty.