As to the demonstrations with the instrument, many amusing incidents have taken place. Two in particular I remember hearing Garcia relate. His pupil Charles Battaille, to whom reference has been already made in an earlier chapter, was most enthusiastic over it, and, having been a medical student at one time, considered himself well qualified to demonstrate its virtues. Hearing that the Turkish Ambassador in Paris was going to give a dinner to the most prominent French inventors of that time, he obtained permission to show off the uses of the new exhibit during the evening. After pointing out that it would revolutionise the scientific study of the throat, he proceeded to force the instrument down the gullet of an unfortunate Court official who had barely finished dinner. The result was disastrous. The other story was a comical experience of a well-known specialist. Like all very sensitive areas of the human body, the organ of the voice is sometimes invaded by special symptoms, notably in hysterical patients. When the laryngoscope became a speciality, a young lady who for two whole years had lost all power of articulation was brought up to London by her mother for advice and treatment. The experienced laryngologist to whom she was introduced placed her in proper position before his lamp, while the parent poured out the prolonged tale of affliction. Without taking any apparent notice of the latter, he placed the mirror in the girl's throat with the usual request, delivered in a cool and commanding tone, "Say 'aw,' please"; when the young lady snappishly drew back her head with, "How can I with that thing in my throat?"--followed by, "Oh, dear, I've spoken!" The specialist turned at once to the anxious parent, and told her she might take her daughter home cured,--as she proved to be. In the present state of our knowledge of such matters, it is rather startling to remember that two and a half centuries ago the famous physician of Norwich, Sir Thomas Brown, thought it a part of his duty, as an advanced teacher of his contemporaries, to devote a chapter of one of his books to stating and proving that food and drink did not descend into the body by two separate tubes. It appears that at that date the majority of the British public actually believed that, as Nature had placed two pipes in the neck, solids were transmitted by one and fluids by the other during the ordinary act of swallowing.