 In 1854 , a Spanish singing teacher named Manuel García ( 1805 – 1906 ) became the first man to view the functioning glottis in a living human . In 1858 , French pediatrician Eugène Bouchut ( 1818 – 1891 ) developed a new technique for non @-@ surgical orotracheal intubation to bypass laryngeal obstruction resulting from a diphtheria @-@ related pseudomembrane . In 1880 , Scottish surgeon William Macewen ( 1848 – 1924 ) reported on his use of orotracheal intubation as an alternative to tracheotomy to allow a patient with glottic edema to breathe , as well as in the setting of general anesthesia with chloroform . In 1895 , Alfred Kirstein ( 1863 – 1922 ) of Berlin first described direct visualization of the vocal cords , using an esophagoscope he had modified for this purpose ; he called this device an autoscope . 
