Abstract: A medical instrument, specifically a laryngoscope, has a hollow handle containing a primary or secondary electric battery and a lamp, the latter having a light bulb disposed at the upper end of a detachable head of the handle toward which it is urged by a spring bearing upon the battery from below. The lamp is held in a metallic sleeve surrounded by a dielectric sheath which is snap-fitted into the detachable head; the sheath and the sleeve are axially repressible against the spring force. A speculum is pivoted to that head and is swingable between an idle position alongside the handle and a working position perpendicular thereto. In its working position, a camming projection on the speculum represses the assembly of battery, sheath, sleeve and lamp and closes an energizing circuit for the light bulb through the handle head. The speculum has a channel which terminates short of its tip and accommodates a fiber-optical light guide whose rear end is illuminated by the light bulb in the working position.