What is that thing called that cartoon characters wear on their heads when they are doctors? You know the silver circle with the black band. Does anyone know what it was called or what it was used for?
2006-12-13 12:58:38 · 4 answers · asked by Snowtoe 2 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Comics & Animation
It is called an indirect ophthalmoscope. Doctors used them long ago to examine the patients' retina of the internal eye. It is a round concave mirror with a hole in the center, and it was worn on the doctor's head by a headband. When in use, the doctor would swing the mirror down infront of his/her eye while a light source (in the old days a candle) positioned several feet away produced light that was reflected off of the mirror into the patient's eye. The doctor aimed the beam by moving his/her head while looking through the hole in the center of the mirror into the patients pupil.. The doctor had a high powered convexed lens in one of his hands that he/she placed a couple of inches in front of the patient's eye. The doctor was able to see an inverted image of the retina of the eye. These are not used anymore, because they have been replaced by modern scopes that have internal light sources and provide images to both eyes at the same time.
In the old days before electricity was available, a candle flame was the only light source used to examine the retina. The large size of the mirror was able to condence the candlelight to create a light beam bright enough to examine the retina. The device was invented by the German physiologist H. L. F. von Helmholtz in 1851.
2006-12-13 13:45:10 · answer #1 · answered by gepsteinod 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2016-05-28 17:51:55 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is called a head mirror, or sometimes a head-eye mirror. It flips down so the doctor can see through a hole right in the middle of it. He can just use room light or an external light source and use the mirror to look into people's throats and ears and such. If he didn't use the mirror his head might shadow where he is looking.
2006-12-13 13:12:35 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's a reflector. It was used to direct a light source to a place being observed through the hole in the middle. They didd't have flashlights back then.
2006-12-13 13:08:18 · answer #4 · answered by Ricky J. 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋