Guide to the surgical instruments and objects in the historical series with their history and development / by C.J.S. Thompson ; with a foreword by the Conservator Sir Arthur Keith.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to the surgical instruments and objects in the historical series with their history and development / by C.J.S. Thompson ; with a foreword by the Conservator Sir Arthur Keith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    part of the XVII or early XVIII century. The interior is divided into several compaitments for holding cerates or ointments used, in dressing wounds, such as the ointments of apple, lead and mercury. These cases were usually carried in the pocket for use at the bedside. This specimen belonged to William Long, Master of the College of Surgeons in 1800, and was presented to the museum by his widow. Guy de Chauliac [1298-1368] was accustomed to carry a cerate case containing five ointments together with his pocket case or etui of instruments, which would include a spatula for spreading them on lint or tow. In the XVI century these cases were usually carried by surgeons suspended from the girdle. A Surgeon’s pocket case or etui (2), partly silver-plated and the rest covered with shagreen, dates from the early XVIII century. It contains two pairs of scissors, one having curved blades commonly known as probe-scissors, a pair of dressing forceps, an ear scoop and grooved director, and a spatula for spreading cerates or ointments. The perforations in the handle of the latter were made to assist cleaning. When this was required, a knot was made at the end of a piece of string and the other end passed through one of the holes. The instrument was then suspended in a jug of boiling water. This case formerly belonged to Mr. Hector, a schoolfellow and friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Another Slifg9©n’s silver pocket case made about 1750 (3) is cylindrical in form and contains a pair of straight scissors, dressing forceps, silver spatula, two flexible silver probes, a female catheter, a lancet and a hollow white metal rod which terminates in a ring for holding a quill containing lunar caustic. The other end of the rod is hollow and forms a receptacle for red oxide of mercury. Following is a collection of surgical pocket cases dating from about 1780 to the end of the XIX century. No. 4 is a case that belonged to Mungo Park (1771-1806 ?) the famous African explorer, whose first expedition left England in 1794. He gave this case to Sir Anthony Carlisle as a B 2