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A variety of opinions exist on who should be credited the invention of endoscopy. Some suggest to go back to Hippocrates (460–377 BCE), who was performing rectal examinations with a speculum [1, 2].

More consistently, the German physician Philipp Bozzini (1773–1809) has received credit for clinical use of his invention the “Lichtleiter,” or “the light conductor,” a primitive endoscope for inspection of ears, mouth, nasal cavity, urethra, rectum, bladder, and cervix. The Bozzini family came from a well‐to‐do Italian family, but they had to leave Italy for Germany due to a lost duel by the father. Bozzini dedicated the last five years of his life, which was cut short by contracting typhus from his patients, to development of his instrument; a vase‐shaped, leather covered tin lantern using a wax candle light source (Figure 1) [3]. Though the Austrian contemporary health authorities were satisfied with the instrument, a second opinion by the Wien medical school, likely negatively influenced by the church, concluded that such an instrument should not be used.

In the latter nineteenth century, the interest was again renewed into using endoscopy. A French urologist, Antoine Jean Desormeaux (1815–1882), modified Bozzini's lichtleiter such that a mirror would reflect light from a kerosene lamp through a long metal channel, referring to his instrument as an “endoscope.” Desormeaux is considered a leader in early endoscopy development and perhaps the first to successfully employ the new technology for diagnostic and therapeutic use in clinical practice. Desormeaux's endoscope was certainly not without its flaws – the required positioning of the device entailed risks of burning the face of the physician or the thighs of the patient. Also, as catheter systems were not yet in use, urine would often “extinguish the flame, ruining the examination” [2].