ero's device
combined mouth suction with a system of valves. Another famous inventor of
assorted devices, Santorio Santorii (1561-1636), described a cup that
contained a syringe in the early seventeenth century.[128] From the 1780s
on, cups with brass syringes began to appear in compendia of instruments.
A cup with brass fixings would be screwed onto a brass pump, placed on the
skin, and the air within removed by a few strokes of the piston.[129] This
sounded better in theory than it worked in practice. Expert cuppers agreed
that they thoroughly disliked using the syringe. Mapleson (1813) offered
three strong objections to the instrument. First, exhaustion could easily
be carried too far, so as to obstruct the flow of blood. Second, the
operation become tedious and fatiguing to the bloodletter because of the
repeated screwing and unscrewing of syringe and glasses. Third, the valves
were liable to malfunction.[130] Twenty-three years later Knox continued
to disapprove of the syringe for the very same reasons. Of all the new
inventions for cupping, he declared in 1836, "the worst is the syringe, as
it makes that a most complicated and bungling operation that which, with
common care and attention is one of the most simple in surgery."[131]

Despite rejection by experienced cuppers, manufacturing of an air-tight
syringe continued to challenge inventors throughout the nineteenth
century. Some attempted to substitute stopcocks for valves, and some to
place long flexible tubes between pump and glasses so that the pumping
motions would not be communicated to the patient. Pumps were gradually
improved, and, although rarely recommended by experts, were sold in great
numbers as part of fancy and expensive cupping sets. These sets, with
prices as high as fifteen dollars, consisted of a mahogany or leather box
with brass latches, lined in plush, and containing compartments for
scarificators, a brass pump, and an assortment of glasses provided with
metal attachments. Some of the most elegant of the cupping sets were those
made by Maison Charriere of Paris. Today the luxury of these cupping sets
seems rather incongruous with the bloody purposes for which the
instruments were used. Yet, the beauty of the instruments and their
containers must have added to the esteem of the physician or surgeon in
the mind of the patient.

Syringes were not only useful in cupping but also were employed in a wide
variety of medical and surgical operation