A standard brass spring loaded scarificator with eight blades in two opposite sets of four.
Number Of Parts
1
Provenance
Acquired from the Academy of Medicine; source unknown.
Maker
W. Smith
Dates
1780
1860
circa 1780-1860
Material
metal: yellow
Inscriptions
"W. SMITH" stamped on one side, with a crown over the top.
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-D6-5
Dimension Notes
Length 6.5 cm x Width 5.0 cm x Depth 4.5 cm
Copy Type
Original
Research Facts
An instrument for making superficial cuts in the skin; especially: one containing several lancets moved by a spring.
By the 19th century, the scarificator was an essential tool in the practice of bloodletting. First developed in the early 1700s as a more humane and efficient bloodletting instrument than lancets and fleams, scarificators had multiple blades that shot out with the press of a spring-loaded lever creating an instantaneous series of parallel cuts in the skin of the patient. Scarificators could be square or round in shape, but by 1790, octagonal boxes such as this one was favoured in Britain and North America.