CHAPTER XIV.
THE LARYNGOSCOPE.
(1854-1857.)
IT was in 1854 (the year which saw the ultimatum of England and France presented to St Petersburg, the prelude to the Crimean War) that the important invention was made—or, as the maestro with characteristic modesty described it, "the idea dawned on him"—of the laryngoscope.
As to its lasting value to the world at large, it will be sufficient to point out that since that year, according to reliable estimates, 3 per cent of the entire human race have been benefited by the invention.
With regard to the history of the discovery, an account of the earlier attempts which had been made has been set down in the number of the 'British Medical Journal' published at the time of the Garcia Centenary.
Before proceeding further, it may be well to warn the reader that the next few pages are bound to deal with a certain amount of technical detail which it is impossible to avoid in relating this portion of the maestro's career.
Although the dentist's mirror was in use among the ancient Romans, the first trace of an attempt to examine the throat by means of reflected light is found about the middle of the eighteenth century.
In 1734 Levret, whose name is still held in honour among obstetricians, described a speculum, consisting of a plate of polished metal, which "reflected the luminous rays in the direction of the tumour," and received the image of the tumour on its reflecting surface. Levret seems to have used the mirror, not as a means of diagnosis, but as a guide in the application of ligatures to tumours in the throat. At any rate, his invention bore no fruit.
Half a century later Bozzini, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, devoted much attention to devising means of illuminating the main canals of the human body. In 1807 he published a description of an apparatus by which the throat and the posterior nares could be examined by reflected light. The official heads of the profession laughed away his invention, which, though cumbrous, deserved a better fate.