If it be true that "necessity is the mother of invention," then no period was more suitable for that great invention, the laryngeal mirror, than the present one.
The tendency of modern civilization is to imprison us closely within the walls of our cities and houses. As a result we find an increased tendency to the development of diseases of the air-passages, together with various less conspicuous sequelæ. As an example of these I may mention abdominal hernia. As regards the origin of ruptures caused by nasal affections, I made the following remarks before the German Medical Society of New York (Zur Aetiologie der Unterleibsbrüche, N. Y. Med. Presse, Oct., 1888): "If primarily we consider this question from a purely theoretical standpoint, nothing is easier than to prove the possibility of the origin of a hernia from an affection of the nose, in the same way as, long ago, it