Selected monographs.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/368 (page 11)
    CHAPTEE III. OF THE LARYNGOSCOPY INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR EMPLOYMENT. Fig. i. Section I.—The Laryngeal Minor. The laryngeal mirror employed by Liston and Garcia possesses a flat surface, and is attached to the end of a long stiff handle. I have given to the mirror a square shape, with the angles rounded off (Fig. i), and have had the stem soldered to one of its four corners ('Bib./ No. a). Dr. Turck afterwards employed round or ovoid mirrors ('Bib./ No. 5). The diameter of the mirror is of more importance than its shape, in consequence of the varying irritability and size of the buccal and pharyngeal cavities in different individuals. Besides, we can readily un- derstand why it is preferable to employ large rather than small mirrors ; because the brilliancy of the light, and extent of the visual plane, increase with the dimen- sions of the reflecting surface. I recommend mirrors of dimensions varying from four lines to an inch and a quarter ('Bib./ No. 2). Since the beginning of April 1858, in observations made upon myself, I have used a glass of the relatively large size represented in Eig. 1, 1. The medium mirrors, of a diameter of from six tenths to eight tenths of an inch, are the most suitable for common use ; never- theless there are circumstances in which we may employ, with success, mirrors sometimes of greater, and sometimes of smaller dimensions. The thickness of the mirror is about the fifteenth part of an inch. I have found it convenient, in later experiments, to employ mirrors of which the thickness diminishes from the point of attachment to the Fig. 1. The outline of tliree differ- ent models of the laryngeal mirror ; the insertion of the stem is indicated by 1, 2, 3.