Vintage surgical instruments

By neurophilosophy on June 1, 2008.

From Lithographische Abbildungen nebst Beschreibung der vorzuglicheren alteren und neueren chirurgischen Werkzeuge und Verbande, nach dem Handbuche der Chirurgie von Chelius geordnet, und am Schlube mit einer systematischen Zusammenstellung sammlicher abgebildeter Geratschaften versehen, by Franz Andreas Ott, 1829, Munich (via BibliOdyssey).

The book contains a total of 48 plates, and is just one of about 100 digitized monographs available at the Edoc database at Humboldt University in Berlin. Among the instruments in the plate above there appear to be several trepans; earlier today, at the Wellcome Trust's Medicine Man exhibition, I saw some real vintage surgical instruments, as well as a trepanned skull.

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