In 1759, on a certain Monday morning, a child eight years old, while playing with a dried bean, threw it in the air and caught it in her mouth and inhaled it. She was taken to the Charité Hospital in Paris and there seen by the famous Louis. He made a diagnosis on the physical signs which consisted of marked difficulty in breathing and the history. He suggested that the parents permit him to do what was called a bronchotomy, being certain that the bean was localized in the trachea. In those days a tracheotomy was called a bronchotomy. The parents refused this operation. The child died within two days, and at postmortem examination it was found that the bean was in the trachea, and that if the suggestions of Louis had been followed out, the child probably would have been saved. This is one of the first recorded histories of a foreign substance that was diagnosed definitely ante mortem and a proper procedure suggested that was not carried out and at postmortem the findings were corroborated. A careful history and notes of the accident of swallowing or inhaling the foreign substance should be made. Inspection of fauces and indirect examination of the larynx should be done. Physical examination of the chest should be made by inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation. Immediate choking and subsequent coughing should direct one's attention to the possibility of the inhalation or swallowing of a dental foreign body, particularly should this foreign body be lost. Fluoroscopy should be accepted if it is positive8; it is of no consequence if negative. Roentgenograms should be taken in order to study properly the localization, size, presentation, etc., of the foreign substance. Pneumonography to outline and localize a nonradiopaque foreign body. Also to ascertain definitely the bronchus that contains the foreign body.