From: wright@duca.hi.com (David Wright)
Subject: Re: Name of MD's eyepiece?
Organization: Hitachi Computer Products, OSSD division
Lines: 21
NNTP-Posting-Host: duca.hi.com

In article <19387@pitt.UUCP> geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
>In article <C4IHM2.Gs9@watson.ibm.com> clarke@watson.ibm.com (Ed Clarke) writes:
>>|> |It's not an eyepiece.  It is called a head mirror.  All doctors never
>>
>>A speculum?
>
>The speculum is the little cone that fits on the end of the otoscope.
>There are also vaginal specula that females and gynecologists are
>all too familiar with.

In fairness, we should note that if you look up "speculum" in the
dictionary (which I did when this question first surfaced), the first
definition is "a mirror or polished metal plate used as a reflector in
optical instruments."

Which doesn't mean the name fits in this context, but it's not as far
off as you might think.

  -- David Wright, Hitachi Computer Products (America), Inc.  Waltham, MA
     wright@hicomb.hi.com  ::  These are my opinions, not necessarily 
     Hitachi's, though they are the opinions of all right-thinking people
