The “mini-coner“ is a new disposable device for use in the gynecologist's office. It is designed to secure a superficial scrape biopsy of the squamocolumnar junction without pain, bleeding or technical difficulty. In initial field trials, 82 office patients were sampled. A definitive tissue diagnosis was possible in 80 of these specimens. The instrument appears to offer the advantage of supplying more diagnosable tissue specimens when the cytologic smear is doubtful, obscured or of poor quality or where a shortage of skilled cytotechnicians exists. It seems to facilitate sampling of the squamocolumnar junction without causing additional discomfort to the patient. It places no additional burden on the gynecologist or his staff, and for the most part, pathologists find tissue slides stained by routine hematoxylin and cosin easier to interpret than cellular spreads. It does increase the work of the tissue technician, and care must be taken to secure and embed the entire specimen so that no diagnostically valuable particle is lost.