we gain the clearest
account of cupping procedure.[101] Knox, who succeeded Mapleson as Cupper
at Westminster Hospital, was petitioned by 59 medical and surgical
students to write his practical and portable text.[102]

_Instruments of the Professional Cupper_

Cupping instruments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were
generally simple dome-shaped glass cups provided with thick rims so that
the cups would be less painful when applied and removed. Cups were sold in
various sizes, ranging from about 45 mm to 75 mm high. Some were made with
a smaller diameter and a larger belly for cupping on parts of the body
with a limited surface area. For the same reason, cups with an oval rim
were recommended. (Figure 11.)

There were several common methods for exhausting cups, of which the
simplest and most widely used was that of throwing burning lint or tow
(the coarse part of flax, hemp, or jute) inside the glass before applying
the glass to the skin of the patient. The professional cuppers vehemently
disapproved of this clumsy practice, for the patient could easily be
scorched.[103] Various improvements were suggested to avoid burning the
patient. Dionis (1708) had recommended placing a small card with lighted
candles over the scarifications, and then applying the cup.[104] Other
methods included the brief introduction of a wire holding a bit of sponge
soaked with alcohol and ignited, or attaching a bit of sponge to the
inside of the glass by means of wax and a piece of wood. All such methods
were deemed "clumsy expedients" by professional cuppers,[105] who
preferred to employ a lamp or torch especially made for cupping.
Eighteenth-century surgical texts illustrated brass grease lamps with
covers to regulate the flame. Probably less difficult to maneuver was the
alcohol lamp first introduced in the 1790s. Alcohol lamps for cupping were
made of metal, shaped like teapots, and contained a heavy cotton wick
protruding from the spout.[106]

[Illustration: FIGURE 11.--Typical glass cupping cups, late 19th century.
(NMHT 152130 [M-4766-68]; SI Photo 61135-C.)]

Although Mapleson (1813) employed an alcohol lamp, the cuppers writing
after him preferred the more recently-introduced cupping torch. This
consisted of a piece of hollow metal tubing cut obliquely at one end and
provided with a metal bulb or ring at the other end. A cotton wick was
stuffed as compactly as possible into the tube so that a small piece of
wick