Illustrated use of Surgical Instruments During the Civil War
Illustrations below are from the Civil War
Hand-book of Surgical Operations, 279 pages, 1862, by Stephen Smith
(1823-1922) More on Civil
War surgery manuals.
Stephen Smith's Hand-book was the
most widely used surgical manual among the Union forces (The History
of Surgery in the United States, Ira M. Rutkow, M.D.).
c. 1863 surgical set by Wade and Ford, New
York City, which
belonged to a documented Civil War Federal Naval Surgeon. The case is
engraved with his name and the 1863 date of its purchase. This is
the type of personal set a surgeon could have brought to war and was
specified as 'Dr. Wood's Cased' by Dr. Stephen Smith.
See
additional details and
EXPANDED photos of
this set
A surgical set
by Wade and Ford, typical of those used in the field during the
Civil War. Above is an excellent example of this Civil War set
in this collection.
Various bullet forceps,
extractors, and locaters.
1. forceps as found in most surgical
sets
2. an expanding wire tip to grab
mini ball bullet
3. screw tip to bore into bullet
(not very effective)
4. ceramic tip for location of ball
by feel and marking
5. scoop type tip to acquire and
remove a bullet
6. forceps with ball held in tip
Chain saw, needle with
thread for threading the chain, and a needle director for going
around the bone and pulling back the end of the chain saw.
The handle on one end of the
chain is removed and then is attached to the thread and pulled
around the bone.
Tourniquet used to apply
pressure on the artery to stop or limit bleeding. The knob
is turned to increase the pressure and the strap is released
with the locking buckle on top of the arm.
The chain, shown on the
right, is attached to a thread or 'ligature', which is then
threaded from the right to the left. The ligature end is
picked up with tweezers on the left and pulled through with the
chain. The handle is then re-attached to the chain and the
bone sawed (resected) in half.
Hand-hold used to quickly
cut the muscle into flaps which will be turned over the end of
the bone.
The muscle is hand retracted
and an amputation knife is being used to trim down to the bone
prior to cutting the bone with a saw.
A small amputation knife
being used to cut between the joints during amputation of the
fingers.
Lower leg cutting pattern to
include flaps which will be turned over the bone stump.
Use of large forceps for removing
bone from hand.
Ligature needle with handle
used to pass a ligature (thread) through the muscle or around an
artery during
suturing after the amputation.
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