Object ID Number:
EH10497
Object Name:
Scarificator and Cups
Date of Manufacture:
– 19th to 20th Century
Manufactured from:
1810
Manufactured to:
1900
Description / History:
Spring loaded brass scarificator in a small brown leather case with 3 blown–glass cups. Spring scarificators were used to make quick parallel slits in the patient's skin. The patient would then bleed out into a bleeding cup until the doctor retrieved the desired amount of blood.
Bleeding cups were used in one of two ways; they were either used to simply expand the blood vessels thereby creating a blood filled blister, or were used to expand the blood vessels in order to then cut the blister with a scarificator and let the blood bleed out. Doctors either heated the inside or the outside of the cups to create pressure that induces suction.
Bleeding cups were used in one of two ways; they were either used to simply expand the blood vessels thereby creating a blood filled blister, or were used to expand the blood vessels in order to then cut the blister with a scarificator and let the blood bleed out. Doctors either heated the inside or the outside of the cups to create pressure that induces suction.
Dimensions:
H–2.5 W–4.5 L–9.5 inches
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