Page:Intubation of the Larynx - Waxham (1888).djvu/12

vi for "putting a plug in a child's throat." On one occasion I was obliged to beat a hasty retreat to avoid personal injury, and in another case the coroner was summoned to investigate and to hold me responsible for a child's death. Through the support and encouragement of my brother practitioners, however, I was enabled to persevere until the operation became established as a legitimate procedure.

Intubation has now become so thoroughly recognized as a practical and successful operation, that I believe it to be a duty the medical profession at large owe to the public, that at least one physician in every village, town and city throughout this great country, should possess the necessary instruments, pluck and skill to successfully perform this operation.

If intubation were no more successful than tracheotomy, these instruments should still form a portion of the necessary armamentarium of every well equipped practitioner, that he might be able to prevent strangulation (in cases where tracheotomy would not be permitted) during the course of one of the most dangerous and distressing diseases with which we, as physicians, have to contend. I have witnessed nothing more distressing than death by