Ancient civilizations used to make holes in the head to get rid of the sound of evil spirits.
Not much progress had been made by the sixteenth century, when a distracted woman wrote in her diary: 'My God, it is the Devil's noises.
' And recently the London mother of a ten-year-old boy told their doctor: 'It is like a swarm of bees in his head, and he cries a lot.
' Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world know what tinnitus is like, but still remain ignorant about precisely what it is.
It can be defined quite easily: sound inside the head not caused by anything outside it - the Latin word tinnitus literally means 'a ringing'.
Quite unrelated to any external stimulus, it is confined to the head and cannot be heard by anyone else.
To describe the sounds takes a little longer: they may resemble almost anything from a hissing to the roar of a jet engine.
The commonest include metallic banging, whistling, drum beats, water running, electric drills, clock chimes and telephone bells.
A single sound may be isolated or be joined intermittently or constantly by any of the others.
The racket can be experienced in one or both ears or somewhere in the centre of the head.
At its worst it can threaten mental health or lead a sufferer to suicide.
Its prevalence and intensity make it one of the scourges of human life.
It is also one of the most baffling.
Doctors are keen to point out that it is not a disease or malfunction of the body, but a symptom of something else.
It is a medical condition.
Once that is stated, further explanation becomes wafer thin.
Attempts to add to the basic knowledge of the subject become lost in the labyrinths and byways of medical speculation and conjecture.
If it is a symptom, of what is it a symptom? When anything is said to be symptomatic of something else, surely the 'something else' cannot be a mystery? The symptom and the cause are related and one cannot exist without the other.
This line of enquiry can bring about a shuffling of feet and a glazed expression even among those who have studied the subject professionally.
Four thousand years ago the Egyptians had something to say about rackety heads, but current theories on what causes them still have to be proved.
The status of 'symptom' must remain, but without compelling scientific knowledge of the causes.
"So what"? a person plagued by tinnitus may reply.
Isn't it possible to cure it, symptom or not, without first proving what started it, just as an aspirin helps a headache? At present neither cure nor cause has been discovered or defined.
It can be relieved, and even seemingly abolished in a growing number of cases as a result of new holistic treatments, but in medical terms it remains an incurable condition.
Expectations that a single cure will be found are becoming increasingly unrealistic.
Scientists now think there are several causes and if this is the case, several cures will be needed.
The good news is that some forms of relief can be applied to various forms of tinnitus whatever their causes are.
Treatment is therefore racing ahead of a cure or cures.
Because of its subjective and personal nature, tinnitus is a challenge to good health which itself can be challenged by sufferers.
With determination and a positive outlook, it is possible to intervene successfully in the course of events when tinnitus strikes and discover ways of getting the better of what at first can seem like a noisy monster invading the head.
Some simple therapies under the direction of skilled people and, just as valuably, a few basic pieces of advice can lighten the burden.