22 The Laryngoscope. 
however, cannot in a purely scientific periodical, absorb 
our attention. Czermak’s book brought other claimants 
into the field, each endeavouring to establish their own 
priority. The principal of these was Dr. Turck, of Vienna, 
from whom Czermak had really borrowed the instruments 
at the beginning of his researches and this after Turck 
seems to have laid aside the idea as of no great value. 
A very pretty quarrel for some time raged among the 
German professors, and it is particularly amusing to note 
how in the end it turned out that others had been at work 
at the same subject, with varying success, and somewhat 
gratifying to note that our English scientific experimenters 
were by no means behindhand. 
As early as 1856, Dr. Prosser James seems to have dis- 
covered some disease in the throat by this method—‘a 
warmed reflector was placed in the back of the throat, and 
light directed upon it.”* This was at least two years before 
the observations of the German professors. But long 
before this, Liston, the leading London surgeon of the last 
generation, had advised “ such a glass as is used by dentists 
on a long stalk, previously dipped in hot water, introduced 
with its reflecting surface downwards,’ as a ‘means of 
inspecting the throat.t A more recent worker on this sub- 
ject, Dr. Mackenzie, has had the pleasure of demonstrating 
in the year 1864, that a fellow countryman, the late Dr. 
Babington constructed an instrument which he called a 
“glottoscope,’ and exhibited it at one of the learned 
societies in 1829. This instrument is a very perfect one of 
its kind, and shows that after all Dr. Babington invented 
the laryngoscope, although he, like others, allowed his dis- 
covery to slumber for years. We have now done justice to 
the curious history of this discovery, and leaving the medi- 
cal profession to work out its practical applications, confine 
ourselves to the scientific part of the subject. To trace this 
we goback to the already cited “ observations” of Garcia. 
This industrious observer was deeply interested in the 
modulations of the human voice, and this prompted him to 
make the valuable experiments and discoveries described 
in his contributions to the “ Philisophical Magazine.” He 
thus describes his mode of proceeding :— 
“The method I have adopted is very simple ; it consists 
in placing a little mirror, fixed on a long handle suitably 
* “Sore Throat and the Laryngoscope,” by M. Prosser James, 
M.D., Senior Physician to the City Dispensary, &c. p. 139. 
{ Liston’s “ Practical Surgery,” 1840, p. 417. 
