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Benjamin Guy Babington and his mirror

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

Donald Harrison
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Abstract

Despite good evidence to the contrary, the Spanish singing teacher Manuel Garcia is still credited by many to have been the discoverer of the mirror for inspecting the larynx. Although the adoption of this technique into clinical practice, and thus the beginning of laryngology as a specific discipline, is rightly credited to others Manuel Garcia achieved unwarranted fame…if not fortune. Careful examination of the published literature has substantiated the claim that 26 years prior to the paper presented on Garcia's behalf to the Royal Society of London, Babington had described to the Hunterian Society a similar device which later evidence indicated had been used clinically on at least one laryngologist. This claim was also supported by no less than Morell Mackenzie in a published lecture in 1864, nine years after Garcia's lecture. Possible explanations for this aberration of justice are considered.

Keywords

History of medicine19th centuryLaryngology
Type
Historical Article
Information
The Journal of Laryngology & Otology , Volume 112 , Issue 3 , March 1998 , pp. 235 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 1998

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