Historical medical instruments

August 18, 2006 12:08 AM

Phisick- Beautifully presented historical medical instruments. Check out the French Nasal Rectificateur. Take a look these ear trumpets too: 1, 2, 3, 4. [Click on the images in the top strip for alternate views and close-ups]
posted by tellurian (19 comments total)

Wow, those really are quite attractively shot, and an impressive collection, to boot. Love the "quackery" section.
posted by jonson at 12:16 AM on August 18, 2006

Fantastic post tellurian! Cool find, amazing images. I love the way one can really get a good look at everything. Yikes, it's scary to think of "leeching" and "scarificators". Years ago on Portobello Road, I bought something like this gizmo as a Christmas present for someone. It was an 'E.J. Bradbrooke' shock machine, for bizarre medicinal purposes. It had a hairbrush in it as well. Here's another page of vintage medical stuff.
posted by nickyskye at 12:38 AM on August 18, 2006

Gaahhh! I read that as musical instruments!
Brain... hurting... now...
posted by lekvar at 1:05 AM on August 18, 2006

Wow. Some fascinating and genuinely beautiful objects here.
And not many people know that this is what inspired the Paul McCartney/Stevie Wonder duet.
posted by bunglin jones at 1:37 AM on August 18, 2006

Dang bunglin jones that lancet gizmo looks like a torture instrument.

Here's another beautiful lancet from another antique scientific instrument site with some good pics.
posted by nickyskye at 2:09 AM on August 18, 2006

Ugh. Very Cronenberg.
posted by raygirvan at 5:09 AM on August 18, 2006

This instrument, it vibrates?
posted by clevershark at 5:54 AM on August 18, 2006

I really want that Magnum De Luxe Violet Ray set.

And the hand-cranked vibrator: brilliant.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:11 AM on August 18, 2006

Gaahhh! I read that as musical instruments!

Actually, back in the day when I worked briefly in a hospital's SPD area, we realized that vaginal specula can be used as castanets.
posted by pax digita at 6:11 AM on August 18, 2006

nickyskye: it's scary to think of "leeching" and "scarificators"
Just the descriptions give me the willies: 19th C Cephalotribe (Savigny) This instrument was used to crush the foetal skull so as to allow extraction [of] the foetus. The long heavy handles applied of [sic] enormous pressure to the skull and when it collapsed the serrated blades allowed the traction necessary to extract it. That whole Obstetrics and Gynaecology section is a horror (I'm not even going to link to the 'pubic bone chain chainsaw') but the Ivory Haemorrhoid Forceps crosses the gender divide: The haemorrhoids were "fixed" by clamping them between the two closed blades and the resulting strangulation of their blood supply would cause them to drop off. No doubt bringing some water to the eyes!
posted by tellurian at 6:32 AM on August 18, 2006

Way cool - and as jonson mentions - even better since it's shot so beautifully. The Vetinary Neurosurgical Trephine Set gives me the willies and I'm not even sure what it's for. This might spark me to make another visit to Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 6:34 AM on August 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

Ugh. Very Cronenberg.
posted by raygirvan at 8:09 AM EST on August 18 [+] [!]

Do you remember the placard uder those instruments? "Gynecological Instruments for Working on Mutant Women". And I seem to recall reading somewhere that Cronenberg's wife designed them.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:38 AM on August 18, 2006

Nice, but there isn't a one that didn't terrify me.
posted by OmieWise at 7:59 AM on August 18, 2006

Thanks for this post. I find it really, really interesting. The 19th century neurological surgery instruments will give me nightmares.

I just love this. These kinds of post are what makes Metafilter great. Thank you!
posted by dios at 8:34 AM on August 18, 2006

Very interesting. And scary. Scary and interesting.

Also, I feel compelled to mention it was not Stevie Wonder! It was Michael Jackson:

And not many people know that this is what inspired the Paul McCartney/Stevie Wonder duet.
posted by Specklet at 8:41 AM on August 18, 2006

Sorry Specklet, it was Stevie Wonder.
posted by lekvar at 11:47 AM on August 18, 2006

Sorry Specklet, it was Stevie Wonder.

Specklet, I think you were thinking of the the Neurosurgical Trephine Say Say Say Set, which did inspire the 1983 duet by McCartney and Jackson.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 12:23 PM on August 18, 2006

omg tellurian, Those "foetal destruction" tools are gruesome.

Inconceivable pain.

Additional medical instruments and quackery mostly of the electrical variety from The Bakken Artifacts database.

Older neurosurgery techniques such as trepanning



with instruments like these used up to 1900 in some ways are less scary than some of the newer vintage tools for brain surgery.

They still have awake brain surgery [video]

I do think a lot of people's fear of surgery and medicine is diminishing because of the web. At least one can look at things, know about what's up instead of going to a doctor like a lamb to the slaughter. Wish they'd make getting to know surgery and medical instruments part of basic biology courses in school.

There's a really excellent movie, King's Row, about a small town dealing with a brutal, sadistic doctor/surgeon, who would have used those nasty vintage instruments.
posted by nickyskye at 1:09 PM on August 18, 2006

ps, some of the old scientific experiment images are wonderful too, like this one using Priestley's Electrostatic Machine
with an engraving by William Watson in 1748.


posted by nickyskye at 1:48 PM on August 18, 2006