Senn of Geneva in 1827 endeavored to examine the larynx of a little girl suffering from an affection of the throat by means of a small mirror which he had made and which he inserted into the pharynx, but he failed to see the glottis, because, as he says, the mirror was too small, and because he used neither direct nor reflected light to illuminate the cavity below the mirror.4
4 Journal de Progrès des Sciences, etc., 1829.
In the year 1829, Benjamin Guy Babington published5 an account of what he called the glottiscope, an apparatus which consisted mainly of two mirrors. One of these was small and attached to a slender stem, and was used to receive the image, while the other, an ordinary hand-glass, was used to reflect the rays of the sun or ordinary daylight upon the smaller mirror in the fauces. This combination was essentially the same as is used at the present day in the laryngoscope, with the difference that we now use artificial light in most instances, and a concave mirror instead of a plane one for reflecting the light.
5 Lond. Med. Gazette, 1829, vol. iii.
While Babington was still engaged in perfecting his instruments, a mechanic named Selligue, who suffered from an affection of the throat, in 1832 invented a speculum for his physician, Bennati of Paris, with which the latter was able, as he asserted,6 to see the vocal cords. This instrument was similar to the one invented by Bozzini, and consisted of a double speculum bent at right angles and carrying two mirrors—one for illuminating the cavity, and the other for reflecting the image. Selligue was rewarded for his efforts by a complete cure of his affection.
6 Recherches sur le Mécanisme de la Voix humane.
A number of others worked in the same direction, and endeavored to see the interior of the larynx in the living subject by employing different apparatus and methods of illumination. Thus, in 1838, Baumès of Lyons described a mirror the size of a two-franc piece (11/8 inches in diameter) as useful in examining the larynx and posterior nares.7 Then Liston in 1840 used a dentist's mirror,8 and Warden of Edinburgh employed a prism of flint glass attached to a long stem as a laryngeal mirror.9 In the latter part of the same year Avery of London employed a speculum with a mirror in its end for examining the larynx, using as an illuminator a concave reflector with a central opening, which was supported by a frame to be worn on the head of the operator.10
7 Compte Rendu des Travaux de la Société de Médecine de Lyons, 1836–38.
8 Practical Surgery, 1840.
9 Lond. Med. Gazette, vol. xxiv. p. 256.