Beginning biology and botany students have long used simple sets of instruments to dissect plants and animals. The Clay-Adams Company of New York, a maker of teaching apparatus and surgical supplies, sold this example . The set includes a dropping pipette for transferring liquids, a pair of scissors, a teasing needle with wooden handle and straight metal point, a scalpel, dissecting forceps, and a 6-inch (15 cm.) plastic rule. A second needle is missing. The instruments fit in a black leatherette case with a green lining.
In 1949, Clay-Adams offered such kits for $2.00 each or $20.40 for a dozen. Kits similar to this one, but with slight variations in case and instruments, were sold by Clay-Adams and other companies in the mid-1960s, and could be purchased with funds supplied by the National Defense Education Act.
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