Friday, June 7, 2013

The Doctor's Bag

I mentioned a doctor's medical bag a few weeks ago in the Strychnine & Firearms Curiosa post. I finally had a look at it today and must sadly say, that it is not as old as I was told. When they said "full of tools" I was expecting a surgeon's bag, with knives and saws and such. Sadly, no.

Granted, the bag was old, if by "old" I mean "in poor condition." The bag may be older than its contents, but not, I think, by a huge margin. A canister inside had a patent date of 1906. There were some patent medicine bottles... strychnine, inoculant. A variety of needles. Several rolls of cotton thread, a well-rutted cake of beeswax. You would wax the cotton thread before stitching someone up. A wooden needle case containing a small bullet and something like a lightweight corkscrew. A wooden tool that may have been used for inoculation. A leather strap. Tourniquet? To bite down on? Who knows? One of the items was marked Germany. Perhaps it was a World War I medical bag. Anyway, I'm sorry I have no pictures. I will have another look at it next week. If I notice anything more I will add it then.

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