when insertion tube 20 is formed of an absorbant material it should be discarded after use as shown in the drawings insertion tube 20 has an outer diameter slightly smaller than the inner diameter of protective sleeve 11 to permit it to telescopically fit and slide within protective sleeve 11 insertion tube 20 can of course be in the form of a rod stop means 25 preferably formed of a suitable polymeric material is also tightly frictionally fitted onto insertion tube 20 in like manner as guard ring 15 on protective sleeve 11 stop means 25 serves to limit the degree of protrusion from tip 12 of the cervical tissue or mucus sampling member 30 stop means 25 may also be integrally formed as an integral part of insertion tube 20 particularly when insertion tube 20 is in rod form as will be seen in fig2 cervical tissue or mucus sampling member 30 is illustrated as a double ended swab comprising an elongate semi rigid rod 31 the ends of which are covered with a flexible soft resilient fibrous material such as cotton rayon polyester or calcium alginate forming specimen collecting tips 32 it has also been found that foam materials particularly open cell foam materials are highly efficient as sampling member 30 only one of tips 32 is used for collecting a mucus sample the other tip 32 serves to frictionally hold sampling member 30 firmly in the interior of insertion tube 20 it will be readily apparent to the reader that the end of sampling member 30 inserted into insertion tube 20 can take other forms than shown e g the.