It is evident that the ancient Greeks were acquainted with some means of closing or remedying acquired or congenital defects of the palate; but nothing is known definitely of the method adopted. In the year 1565 Petronius, in his work ‘De Margo Gallico,’ proposed to close the opening by wax, cotton, or with a gold plate adapted to the curve of the palate; but in all probability this was no new suggestion. Ambrose Paré, in his book on Surgery, published in Paris in 1579, translated into English in 1649, suggests that the cavity should be covered over by a gold or silver plate, “made like unto a dish in figure, and on the upper side which shall be towards the brain, a little sponge must be fastened, which when it is moistened with the moisture distilling from the brain will become swollen and puffed, so that it will fill the concavity of the palate, that the artificial palate cannot fall down, but stand fast and firm, as if it stood of itself.” A modification of this was suggested shortly after by Isaac Guillemeau, who, to increase the accurate adaptation of the obturator, proposed a “packing” of sponge or lint around the edges of the apparatus. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Garangeot, in his ‘Treatise on Instruments,’ proposed to fix the sponge, which was placed above the obturator in the nose, by passing through it a screw stem, arising from the upper surface of the plate, and screwing a nut down upon it; evidently trouble had arisen in some cases from the nasal sponge becoming liberated, and retained in the nose. In this country, Wiseman, Sergeant-Surgeon to King Charles II, suggested the accurate filling of the cleft with a paste composed of myrrh, sandarac, and a number of other ingredients; but as to the means by which this was to be maintained in position we are left in ignorance.