Selected monographs : Czermak on the practical uses of the laryngoscope. Dusch on thrombosis of the cerebral sinuses. Schroeder van der Kolk on atrophy of the brain. Radicke on the application of statistics to medical enquiries. Esmarch on the uses of cold in surgical practice.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs : Czermak on the practical uses of the laryngoscope. Dusch on thrombosis of the cerebral sinuses. Schroeder van der Kolk on atrophy of the brain. Radicke on the application of statistics to medical enquiries. Esmarch on the uses of cold in surgical practice. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Various attempts have since been made, blit they have been always very soon abandoned. Among these fruitless attempts I will cite only those of Dr. Turck, chief physician to the General Hospital at Vienna, who occupied himself, in the wards of the hospital during the summer of 1857, with some researches on the laryngoscope, having refer- ence solely, as he himself stated, to its employment in diagnosis. No one has appreciated at its just value the principle of the method indicated by Liston and Garcia, nor has public attention been sufficiently attracted toward the subject. As for myself, I did not commence my larvngoscopic studies until the course of the winter of 1857 and 1858, at first with the intention of obtaining a clear idea of the mode of production of certain Arabic sounds, called true gutturals, and then to repeat and complete the physiological experiments of Garcia. But I very soon recognised, by inventing a new proceeding (viz., in using artificial light, and the large ophthalmoscope as a reflector), all the practical value of the instrument, which I had begun to handle. My first experiments were made with oblong quadrangular mirrors, of which the stem was attached to the middle of the narrower edge, by means of a hinge. These mirrors were lent to me by Dr. Turck, after he had ceased the experiments, for which he had made them. * Already in the commencement of April, 1858, I had improved the laryngeal mirrors most essentially by having them made of different sizes, with the stem soldered to the mirror itself, and not fastened by a hinge. I soon became convinced, both by what I observed in myself and in others, that the laryngoscopic method would prove of great importance and of varied application. Prom that moment I considered it necessary to invite the atten- tion of practitioners to the laryngeal mirror (see 'Bibliography/ No. i),1 and to explain the advantages which physiology and practical medicine might receive by its general employment. This was the first appeal to the profession; no person had as yet dreamt of doing so. Very soon afterwards I made a communication to the I. R. Society of Physicians of Vienna (sitting April 9th, 1858), upon the value and application of the laryngoscope ('Bibliography/