time, one is often amazed
at their petite size, careful construction, beautiful materials, and
elegant design. One marvels at spring lancets made of silver, thumb
lancets with delicate tortoise shell handles, and sets of hand-blown cups
in the compartments of a mahogany container with brass and ivory latches
and a red plush lining. Those finding such instruments in their attic or
in a collection of antiques, even if they can determine that the
instruments were used for bloodletting, often have no idea when the
instruments were made or how they were used. Frequently a veterinary
spring lancet or fleam is mistaken for a human lancet, or a scarificator
for an instrument of venesection. Almost nothing has been written to
describe these once common instruments and to place them in historical
context. Historians who study the history of medical theory usually ignore
medical practice, and they rarely make reference to the material means by
which a medical diagnosis or treatment was carried out. It is hoped that
this publication will fill a need for a general history of these
instruments. This history is pieced together from old textbooks of
surgery, medical encyclopedias, compilations of surgical instruments,
trade catalogs, and the instruments themselves.

The collection of instruments at the National Museum of History and
Technology of the Smithsonian Institution contains several hundred pieces
representing most of the major types of instruments. Begun in the late
nineteenth century when medical sciences were still part of the Department
of Anthropology, the collection has grown steadily through donations and
purchases. As might be expected, it is richest in bloodletting instruments
manufactured in America in the nineteenth century. One of its earliest
acquisitions was a set of four flint lancets used by Alaskan natives in
the 1880s. A major source for nineteenth-century instruments is the
collection of instruments used by the members of the Medical and
Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, a medical society founded in 1799. The
Smithsonian collection also includes patent models of bloodletting
instruments submitted to the U.S. Patent Office by nineteenth-century
inventors and transferred to the Smithsonian in 1926.

Because we have made an effort to survey every major type of instrument
related to bloodletting, it is hoped that this publication will serve as a
general introduction to bloodletting instruments, and not merely a g