Assortment of medical and surgical instruments and ephemera, including:

1. 3-bladed brass bloodletting fleam marked "J / IXL / Wostenholm". 

Fleams, colloquially referred to as "brass bleeders", were instruments employed in opening veins for bloodletting. The blades turn easily. Marks of IXL or I*XL, trademarks held by generations of George Wostenholm from 1826 until 1971, appear predominantly on knives, for which the company is still best-known.

2. Spring lancet for bloodletting. With original leatherette case, 2 additional spring lancet blades, and a thumb lancet blade. Lancet body is hand-etched with a botanical motif, echoing a stamp to the top of the case. 

Spring lancets were significantly more efficient than fleams because the mechanism to drive the blade into a vein was built into the instrument itself, eliminating the need for an external fleam stick. This example is mechanically functional. It has been hand-etched with a pattern resembling leaves or fern fronds.

3. Invalid feeding cup. Depiction of Caduceus and "30" marked to underside. [England: Bishop & Stonier]. 

Invalid cups were designed so that they could be turned 90 degrees without the contents spilling out over the lip, while four small holes at the intersection of the spout and body would help to strain the contents. The piece lacks a printed Bishop & Stonier mark, but identical incised Caducei can be observed in other examples alongside the printed mark. 

4. Bone saw / saw knife. 12 1/2 in. long blade marked "C [DIS]TON / PHILAD'A"; saw measures 18 inches overall. 

5. 2 ebony-handled dental instruments, one marked "L. & W. 11 / Phila", with unmarked medical / surgical instrument terminating in a hook on one end and a metal ball on the other.

The marked instrument is ostensibly a plugger and would have been used to push filling material into cavities. 

6. Paper box with label for "Queen Meadow Herb". Malden, Mass.: S.W. Gould & Bros.

Queen Meadow Herb is described by the packaging as a diuretic and tonic. Sylvester Watson Gould (1839 - 1913) and brothers Alfred M. Gould and Albert W. Gould were prolific salespeople of medicinal herbs, which they grew on their property in Malden.

7. Small octagonal glass inkwell. 

Traces of ink remain as shown.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Medical History, Dental History, Surgical History] [Doctors, Nurses, Dentists, Surgeons] [Amputations, Amputees] [Relics, Ephemera]