Speculum - University of Melbourne

SPECULUM5EDITORIALA Reflection"After much discussion and deliberationthe name 'SPECULUM' in its widest sensehas been chosen, as it is intended that thisjournal shall reflect the ideas of the Melbournemedical student among his fellows,and some light be thrown on the mind of theoutside public, which we fear has remainedhitherto in total darkness as to his socialcondition and sort of education he has theopportunity of obtaining."Seventy-five years ago the above appearedin the opening paragraph of the first editorial.Today you are reading the onehundred and sixty-fourth editorial within acover which has incorporated a reproductionof the front of that first Speculum.Much has been written in previous yearsand previous anniversary editions ofSpeculum about its cover, its contents, andthe colorful path which it has carved in itstravels down the years. It, therefore, seemsfitting that a reproduction of that very firstcover should appear in the seventy-fifth yearof the journal's publication, the MedicalStudents' Society being founded four yearsprior to this. By contrast, the medical schoolwill be celebrating its centenary in threeyears.Melbourne Medical Students can well beproud of Speculum, for not only is it whollyorganised and produced by students and oneof the few publications issued regularly by asection of the student body, but it is theoldest University student publication inAustralia—having won a race which developedbetween it and the MelbourneUniversity Review (which lasted only fiveissues) by the narrow margin of two days inJuly, 1884.Since that time the cover of Speculum hasbeen altered a significant number of timesas has the number of editions appearing ,nany one year. While two issues of Speculumwere produced in 1884, by 1887 the numberhad increased to four, whereas in latteryears only one issue has been forthcoming.This, in all likelihood, has been broughtabout by an expanding curriculum availingless time for dabbling in production, andalso by the steady rise in cost of production.The journal has, however, been enlarged—the 1884 Speculum measuring as depictedand having twenty pages compared withtoday's dimensions which first appeared in1921 and which has contained an increasingnumber of pages. For the last five yearsthis has been in the vicinity of one hundredpages.Take another glance at the opening paragraph.It states, ". . . that this journal shallreflect the ideas of the Melbourne medical