The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-11-23
The I.aryngoscope aud Throat- Diseases

Prior to the discovery of the larvngo-
scope, the great obstacle 10 the diagno-
sis and comprehension of disease OF the
| larynX lay in the fact that this organ
was so placed as To be at an almost di-
rect angle TO the line of the vision. If
we look into the mouth of another per-
son, we see the back of the mouth: but
if we wish to see the larynx, or organ
, of tone and voice, we are unable to do
it, even though its position is Just back
of and below the root of the tongue.
| And, even though we press down the
tongue, we derive no aid. Nor are we
enlightened by symptoms of pain or
discomfort in the throat, for these are
not only insufficient, but may be abso-
lutcly deceptive. A patient may COM
plain of aches and pains, and may i'm
aginc them in the larynx, and all the
while the organ be in perfectly sound
state; and, on the other hand again,
grave forms of throat-discase NAV ex-
ist, and with so little of actual pain as
to cause the victim hardly any uneasi-
ness. The revolution in this DEPART
mcnt of the medical art may perhaps be
best illustrated when | refer TO the fact
that ere the introduction of the larvn-
geal mirror, barely twenty years ago,
there were but two or three forms of
laryngcal disease recognized or treated
i'll the textbooks on the practice of
medicine. AT the present time, the
study of the numerous and varied dis
eases of this wonderful little organ, the
larynX, has made such strides that Ia
rynggology has, like ophthalmology, OF
ology, and eynacology, demanded and
received recognition as separate and
distinct department of medical practice
and has its special practitioners in al
most every city of size and population.
Whereas, formerly, the two or three
recognized forms of throat-diseases
were dismissed in a scant dozen of
pages in the medical tcxt-works, we
now have exhaustive and elaborate
treatises in all of the great languages of
the civilized world. Twenty wears ago
inflammation, laryngeal phthisis, or,
popularly speaking, throat
ton, and Gdema, constituted the three
recognized forms of throat-aflcctio :;
but, in eight years from the first prac-
tical application of this instrument, the
revolution was such that separate trea-
tiscs described and treated of forty and
more varieties of disease, such as acute
laryngitis and the various acute aflcc-
tions; simple chronic laryngitis, chron-
ic ulcerative laryngitis; of six or seven
forms of Inflammation of special parts
of the larynx; tubcrcular and syphiltic
laryngitis, @dcma, absccss, etc Next
we find descriptions of the diseases
which attack the laryngeal cartiages or
framework of the larynx, as perichon-
drifts and chondrits. Then follow ner-
vOus forms of arrangement, and then
paralytic forms of difficulty. In the first
we have conditions of nervous exalta-
ton, such as spasmodic coughs, spasms,
etc. Under the second head we have
paralytic affections of the vocal cords
and laryngcal muscles. These paralyt-
ic difficulties of the larynx may exist i'm
the larynX without much or even any
impairment of the general health. Then
we have anemia or impoverished blood
supply, and finally, the varied forms of
tumors and morbid growths, cancerous,
syphilitic, ctc.-[Dr. Secger, in Popu-
lar Science Monthly for December.