ring lancets are found in a wide variety of shapes.
Mid- and late nineteenth-century spring lancets are more uniform in shape,
most having the familiar knob-shaped end. In most lancets the blade was
released by a lever, but in the late nineteenth century, the blade of a
more expensive model was released by a button.

[Illustration: FIGURE 6.--Spring lancet, 19th century. (NMHT 321636.01; SI
photo 73-4236.)]

[Illustration: FIGURE 7.--Interior of spring lancet. (NMHT 308730.10; SI
photo 76-13535.)]

In general, German, American, and Dutch surgeons preferred the spring
lancet to the simple thumb lancet. In contrast, the French tended to
prefer the thumb lancet. Ristelhueber, a surgeon in Strasbourg, maintained
in 1819 that the simple lancet was preferable to the spring lancet both in
terms of simplicity of design and application. While allowing German
surgeons some credit for attempting to improve the spring lancet,
Ristelhueber remained firm in his view that the spring lancet was too
complicated and performed no better than the thumb lancet. The only
advantage of the spring lancet was that it could be used by those who were
ignorant of anatomy and the art of venesection. Untutored bleeders could
employ a spring lancet on those veins that stood out prominently and be
fairly confident that they could remove blood without harming other blood
vessels. The bagnio men (bath attendants), who routinely bled the bathers
in public baths, preferred the spring lancet.[69] It was more difficult to
sever a vein with a spring lancet and thereby cause serious hemorrhaging.
However, since the spring lancet was harder to clean because of its small
size and its enclosed parts, it was more likely to induce infection
(phlebitis).

While the French and British surgeons remained critical of the spring
lancet, it became popular in the United States. John Syng Dorsey, a noted
Philadelphia surgeon, wrote in 1813:

The German fleam or spring lancet I prefer greatly to the common
English lancet for phlebotomy; it is now in some parts of the United
States almost exclusively used. In a country situated like the United
States, where every surgeon, except those residing in our largest
cities, is compelled to be his own cutler, at least so far as to keep
his instruments in order, the spring-lancet has a decided preference
over the lancet; the blade of this can with great ease be sharpened
by any man of co