Gadgets: Ye Olde Speculum

The gadget loving guys at Boing Boing have made a list of the Top 10: Gadgets That Go Inside You. While we have a favorite that rhymes with habit (coincidence, we think not), we actually learned something about the least sexy thing you can shove in your secret garden -- the speculum. You may joke that medical tools seem like Medieval Times torture devices, but as it turns out, the simple metal machine that opens us ladies up has been used on women since before the Dark Ages. The speculum has been traced to scholarly writings in a Hebrew book called the Talmud that dates all the way back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1300 B.C.E. That means most of your biblical female heroines had this "technology" in their hoo-ha, too! Although it's older than dirt, it wasn't officially named till Roman times. A speculum specimen was even unearthed from the rubble at Pompeii. Can you image the look on the 19th Century archaeologists' faces when they discovered a mummified woman and dusted off her va-jay-jay? There's another history lesson here: Do not go to the gyno near an erupting volcano. But if you think the vaginal speculum makes you squirm, just keep in mind that there's an anal one for dudes. [Sexual Health Matters]

--Posted by Simcha at The Frisky