RARE CIVIL WAR BLEEDER w/ BOX SCARIFICATOR IN BOX

Why bleed with one spring-loaded blade when you could have 16 blades?! As long ago as the 17th century there were multi-bladed bleeders called scarificators. These became very popular in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Like spring lancets, they came in every size and description. This is a basic octagonal English scarificator with most of the original box. The case is brass and the mechanism and blades are steel. There is a depth adjuster for the blades on the top and the blades are cocked by the lever on top. The release switch is on the side. This allowed the blades to swing around, making multiple cuts at once. Once the patient was cut, the doctor placed a warmed cup over the wounds. As the cup cooled, the vacuum created caused blood to flow from the wound, sometimes with the aid of a pump attached to the cup. In the late 1800s, electrical pumps were sometimes employed to speed the flow of blood. Excellent