MELANIN IN THE INNER EAR

Abstract

REVIEW OF LITERATURE The presence and distribution of melanin pigment in the labyrinth has long been recognized. In recent years, however, this fact has been overlooked by the authors of general textbooks of histology in their discussions of both pigment and the cytologic structures of the inner ear. English textbooks, in particular, have been remiss in this respect. In 1851, Corti described pigment cells, resembling those of the choroid coat of the eye, in the "periosteum" (spiral ligament) of the cow and sheep. He observed pigment in amorphous grains and in enlarged epithelial cells of the stria in "very old" cats. It was also noted along the aqueduct of the cochlea and, in the cow and sheep, along the sheath of the auditory nerve. As early as 1860, Voltolini of Breslau, in the first of a series of three reports on postmortem conditions of human ears, cited the presence