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. In 1825 Cagniard de Latour introduced a little mirror into the back of the throat, hoping with the aid of the sun's rays and a second mirror to be able to see the epiglottis, and even the glottis, but failed. In 1827 another unsuccessful attempt was made by Senn of Geneva; and two years later Benjamin Guy Babington exhibited at the Hunterian Society of London an instrument very like the laryngoscope now in use: he employed it in many cases, but for some reason seems to have left no record of them. In 1832 Bennati of Paris stated that he could see the vocal cords by means of a double-tubed speculum, invented by a patient suffering from laryngeal phthisis. Trouseau, however, proved to his own satisfaction that the epiglottis must always make it impossible to see the inside of the larynx. In 1838 Baumès of Lyons showed a mirror with which he said the larynx could be examined.