Besides the stethoscope, two of the most ubiquitous instruments in the doctor's office are the auriscope or otoscope, and the ophthalmoscope. Used to examine the ears and the eyes, the two instruments have long histories.

The Strauss Health Sciences Library has a selection of aurioscopes, otoscopes, and ophthalmoscopes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The first otoscope was described by French physician Guy La Chauliac in his Collectorium artis chirurgicalis medicinae, who described a device to 'to diagnose different foreign bodies in the ear canal, it was best to inspect the ear, illuminated by sunlight, with the outer ear canal widened by means of a speculum' in 1363. It is unclear if the device was ever manufactured.

Fabricius Hildanus, the 16th century German surgeon, is credited with the invention of the first instrument used to examine and remove items from the inner ear, the aural speculum. The aural speculum allows a physician to extract items from the ear, and to examine the inner ear, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that a lens was added to the device.