Earliest developments in endoscopy

We're talking about the early steps of endoscopy in Europe.

But of course, urology was born for the main part in Europe.

And the first real step was the first endoscope was invented by Philippe Bocini in 1804.

So that's, let's say, more than 200 years ago.

And Bozzini actually studied and worked in Mainz, now called Germany.

And he served as a doctor in the Imperial Austrian Army.

And he was in charge of a large field hospital in Mainz.

And he experienced during his work how difficult it could be to find bullets in wounded soldiers.

So he started to think, what can we do to make this work easier? And this inspired him to design an instrument.

And he called this the Lichtleiter.

And it was an instrument with which you could see into the air, the urethra, the vagina, the rectum, the female bladder, and also look into wounds.

It was built by an Austrian instrument builder, instrument maker, Johan Gottlieb Weissner.

And he was working in Leipzig.

And Bocini, however, never mentioned him, the builder of the instrument, in his medical publications.

He presented this instrument in Austria and he demonstrated that in 1804 for the first time in Frankfurt and the reactions varied.

His intention was ridiculed in a local newspaper.

People thought that was a very stupid idea to look inside bodies.

but there were also people positive.

And he published about his instrument, the Lichtleiter, two years later in a German medical journal.

And the title of the publication was Lichtleiter, eine Erfindung zur Anschauung in der Teilen und Krankheiten.

Or just to say, an invention to look inside the body and its diseases.

It was actually a leather-covered instrument with a metal chimney.

It was a four-leaf speculum and a candle inside for the light.

And with this mirror system, the light was guided through the instrument.

And that spring mechanism made sure that the flame remained at a constant height because you always needed a very steady illumination.