To the Editor.
—A new method of percutaneous anesthesia for endoscopy has been described by Dr. Jafek and his colleagues in the May issue of the Archives (104:658-661,1972). This method of local analgesia for endoscopy does not in practice save much time, as has been claimed by the authors, as compared to the method of transmucosal pyriform sinus block along with transglottic instillation of the anesthetic. The new method also increases the simple procedure by at least one step.A similar but somewhat simpler method for percutaneous block of the superior laryngeal nerve has been described by Wycoff,1 where the needle is passed through the skin just above the thyroid cartilage at a point one third of the distance from the midline to the superior cornu and advanced upwards and medially for 1 to 2 cm till it is felt to pass through the thyroid membrane. This when combined