Showcase I: Bloodletting

1. Flint: for cutting, bloodletting, etc., c. 6th
millennium BC.
2. Roman scalpel blade: similar to the modern
no. 20 surgical disposable blade, used for
bloodletting and incision.
3. Roman double-ended lancet: bronze, with the
iron blade missing and an arrowhead, c. 100 BC.
4. Bloodletting lancet: c. 1750, folding steel blade
with tortoise-shell handles (see Showcase B,
Shelf 2).
5. Fleam: Fleams were straight or penknife-like
instruments with several (2–4) different typical
triangular blades typically used in human
and veterinary medicine. This is an early fiveblade
fleam, c. 1750, with copper and steel
blades. The owner, John White, engraved his
name on the handle together with a depiction
of puncturing skin. The pointed blade he
engraved is very similar to the modern surgical
blade (no. 11) or the pointed straight lancet-
Roman scalpel.
An early single blade fleam, c. 1700, can be
seen in the main hall, Showcase B. It was applied
against a vein or artery and tapped with a
bloodstick (fleam stick, fleam tapper-hammer)
to penetrate the blood vessel. This bloodstick has
a carved recess to store the fleam.
6. Lancet: c. 1700, jade and silver handle, steel
blade.
7. Large lancet: c. 1800, ivory handle, steel blade.
8. Two lancets and shagreen-covered lancet
case: c. 1850. The lancets have folding steel
blades with tortoise-shell handles (see
Showcase B, Shelf 2).

9. Single blade, spring-loaded scarificator: 1780.
An early single-blade fleam, c. 1700, can be
seen in the main hall, Showcase B (The Blood:
Diagnosis, Shelf 2, Fleam). It was applied
against a vein or artery and tapped with a
bloodstick (fleam stick, fleam tapper-hammer)
to penetrate the blood vessel. This bloodstick
has a carved recess in which to store the fleam.
10. Eight blades, spring-loaded round
scarificator: c. 1850.
11, 12. Two bleeding bowls: bronze (c. 1800) and
an older pewter (c. 1700).