3. Urology and related surgery

1, 2. Two male and one female catheters: c. 1800,
for draining the urinary bladder, one with an
irrigation port.
3. A bellied surgical knife (bistoury): c. 1500,
for “cutting the stone,” steel blades and
lignum vitae handles.
4. Trocar and cannula: c. 1750, for a transabdominal
bladder drainage. The instructions
for use (still valid today) in Encyclopedia
Brittanica, 1768: “You stab it suddenly
through the teguments and, withdrawing
the perforator, leave the waters to empty by
the canula.”
5. Iron “bougie”: c. 1750, for forced opening of
a stenotic (strictured and occluded) urethra.
6. A rare Frere Come urethrotome (1703–1781):
c. 1790, used for cutting and splitting the
strictures of the scarred and stenotic urethra.
7. Chain lithotrite: c. 1780, designed to be
introduced through the urethra to grasp and
crush the bladder stones.
8. Two Milton’s lithotrites: for crushing bladder
stones, early 19th century.
9. Four modified Milton’s lithotrite: c. 1840-1900,
and two obturators to enlarge the urethra to
allow the introduction of the lithotrite, 19th
century. The jaws can be separated, and the
stone caught and crushed between them.
10. Bigelow’s evacuator: Evacuation catheter
to which the evacuator is attached. By means
of this evacuator, the stone crushed by the
lithotrite is flushed and evacuated from the
bladder. The catheter is immersed in water,
the tap is opened, and the bulb is squeezed to
expel air. The evacuator fills, the tap is closed,
and the apparatus is ready for use. It contains
from 6 to 10 ounces (170-230 cc.) and can be
refilled when necessary.
10a. Freyer's Lithotomy or Cystoscopy
Evacuation Apparatus: from The Royal

London Hospital (ex-archived and formerly
part of the Royal London Hospital Museum
collection). Following the increase in
venereal diseases and given the lack of
efficient treatment options for infections,
since antibiotics had not been discovered
yet, using irrigation antiseptics (i.e.,
mercury compounds and Salvarsan),
ineffective as they were, was the only
treatment available.
11. Three irrigation trocars, c. 1900. When
the catheter can’t pass the scarred and stenotic
urethra, the only means to evacuate the urinefilled
bladder is by penetrating the abdominal
wall or the rectum with a trocar that allows
drainage and irrigation.
12. Three male irrigation syringes:
• Two pewter irrigation syringes, c. 1700.
• Metal and glass irrigation syringe, c. 1900.
• Metal and glass syringe: c. 1850, for high
pressure, forced introduction of ointments
into the urethra.
13. Three irrigation glass syringes: c. 1900.
The syringes were used for injecting a local
anesthetic and corrosive medicaments into
the male urethra before instruments such
as metal boogies are passed.
14. Lithotomy instruments: stone forceps, scoop,
Teale’s gorget, used as a guide to split open a
tract into the bladder to allow removal of
stones, 18th – early 19th centuries.