354 
POPULAE SCIENCE EE VIEW. 
charge the duties of a teacher. Even those of our readers who are not mem- 
bers of the medical profession, but who have occasionally visited our 
local science conversaziones must have seen a gentleman sitting at a table with 
a lamp and an arrangement of mirrors and lenses before him, and display- 
ing to a wondering audience the arrangement and operation of his own chordcB 
vocales. That gentleman was Dr. Morell Mackenzie. His book treats of the 
history of the discovery, the nature and optical qualities of the laryngoscope, 
and the mode of employing it in throat diseases. The instrument in 
its simplest form — that of a mirror placed at the back of the throat, so as 
to reflect to the eye of the observer the image of the glottis or air-passage, 
was employed by M. Levret, a distinguished French accoucheur, as early as 
the year 1743. From that period but little advance was made till, in 1804, a 
physician of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Dr. Bozzini, announced his invention 
of an apparatus for illuminating the different canals in the body. This 
savant’s instrument consisted simply of a pair of bent tubes, or rather of a 
single bent tube divided into two portions, and having two mirrors in the 
two angles thus formed ; through one of these canals the light was admitted, 
and reflected to the larynx, and by the other the rays which had fallen upon 
the larynx were conveyed back to the eye of the observer. Feeble were the 
efforts made either to employ or improve the laryngoscope from the year 
1804 up to 1829, when our fellow-countryman Dr. Benjamin Guy 
Babington exhibited, at one of the meetings of the Hunterian Society, an 
apparatus which closely resembled that now in use. “ Two mirrors were 
employed by this physician, one, the smaller, for receiving the laryngeal 
image, the other, the larger one, for concentratiug the solar rays upon the first. 
The patient sat with his back to the sun, and, whilst the illuminating mirror 
was held with the left hand, the laryngeal mirror was introduced with the 
right.” The tongue having been depressed, the larynx could then be distinctly 
observed. Dr. Mackenzie considers that the instrument of Babington may 
be regarded as the first real laryngoscope, and hence that its inventor deserves 
the title of discoverer. The author does not omit to mention the claims of 
Garcia, and alludes to his important paper presented to the Koyal Society. 
En passant, he hints at the want of enterprise which our countrymen some- 
times exhibit. Writing upon this matter, he observes, — “Garcia’s com- 
munication to the Eoyal Society, though causing little stir at the time, was 
destined to experience a fate in many respects similar to that which befell 
the paper of our countryman Mr. Gumming. Treated with apathy, if not 
with incredulity, in England, both papers passed into the hands of foreign 
professors, and whilst Helmholtz matured the ophthalmoscope, Czermak 
developed the laryngoscope.” 
Dr. Mackenzie’s apparatus is somewhat similar to that of Dr. Babington* 
It consists of three distinct elements : a laryngeal plane mirror, which is 
small (about tV inch in diameter), and is held by means of a slender stem at 
the back of the throat ; a second mirror, which is concavf , with a focal 
distance of about 14 inches and a diameter of about 3^ inches : this is per- 
forated by an aperture in the centre. The third element is the illuminator, a 
contrivance devised by the author, and which consists of a chamber of lenses, 
which is so arranged that it can be attached to a common candle. The 
larger mirror may be attached to a spectacle-frame, and worn by the 
