In 1844 Warden of Edinburgh reported two cases in which he said he had been able to make "satisfactory ocular inspection of diseases affecting the glottis," by using two prisms of flint glass. In the same year Avery of London devised a laryngoscope in which a laryngeal mirror was combined with a lamp and reflector: the apparatus embodied the essential features of the modern laryngoscope, but its clumsiness made its practical application difficult, and in many cases impossible. Up to 1850, then, the different attempts had met with failure in varying degrees. When Garcia attacked the problem he was quite ignorant of the fact that others had been at work, and his reason for wishing to overcome the difficulty and catch a glimpse of the glottis was perfectly different from theirs. His was one connected entirely with his work as a teacher of singing. Ever since he had given attention to the scientific aspects of voice-emission, he had longed to see a healthy glottis in the very act of singing. The idea of employing mirrors for the purpose of studying the interior of the larynx came to him in 1854. The following is the story of the discovery as he related it one day:-- "During all the years of study and investigation of the problems of the voice-emission," he said, "one wish was ever uppermost in my mind--'if only I could see the glottis!'" One day in the September of 1854, when on a visit to Paris, he was standing in the Palais Royal. Suddenly there came to him an idea. "Why should I not _try_ to see it?" How must this be done? Why, obviously by some means of reflection. Then, like a flash, he seemed to see the two mirrors of the laryngoscope in their respective positions as though actually before his eyes. He went straight to Charrière, the surgical instrument maker, asked whether they happened to possess a small mirror with a long handle, and was at once supplied with a dentist's mirror, which had been one of the failures of the London Exhibition of 1851. He bought it for six francs.