Surgical Set

Surgical Set

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Description (Brief)
This amputation set made by Baltimore instrument maker J. F. Cassell is typical of the surgical instruments available to American doctors in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Cassel’s first shop was located at 7 Sharp Street from 1823 to 1830, his second shop was at the corner of German and Liberty Streets from 1831 to 1834.
The set belonged to Dr. Colin Mackenzie (1775-1827) who was born in Calvert County, Maryland in 1775. He received his medical degree in 1797 from the University of Pennsylvania. The topic of his dissertation was on dysentery. Mackenzie returned to Baltimore, Maryland after graduation and was an attending physician at the Baltimore City Hospital (1799-1808), and Physician to the St. Andrews Society (1815-1826). In September 1814 the Committee of Vigilance and Safety which oversaw the defense of Baltimore against the British during The War of 1812, appointed Dr. Mackenzie Surgeon in Charge of the city hospital. Mackenzie died 1 September 1827 in Baltimore.
The mahogany case has an oval silver escutcheon and a bale handle. The instrument blades are made of steel, and have ebony handles. The set includes a large amputation saw, tourniquet, two trephines with ebony handles, a bone forceps, one large amputation knife, several smaller knives, and suture needles.
Also included in the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland Collection is an apothecary chest, accession 302606.459 which belonged to Dr. Mackenzie.
Although we do not know the types of operations Dr. Mackenzie performed, he might have encountered a situation similar to the one Scottish surgeon Robert Liston writes about in his 1837 text Practical Surgery. Liston admitted a young boy to the North London Hospital with injuries to his head. The boy’s injuries were caused by shards of broken stone bottles when the wagon he was riding in overturned.
The instruments Liston used were very similar to those found in the Mackenzie set. A small trephine bore holes into the child’s head enlarging the wound and extracting stone fragments from the interior of the skull, dissecting forceps were also used to extract the smaller fragments, and suture needles stitched up the wound.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
Amputation Set
surgical set, amputation
Other Terms
Amputation Set; surgical set
Date made
1833-1842
date made
about 1823-1827
associated dates
1775 01 01+ / 1775 01 01+, 1827 12 31 / 1827 12 31
maker
Cassell, J. F.
place made
United States: Maryland, Baltimore
Physical Description
metal, steel (overall material)
fabric (overall material)
wood (overall material)
silver (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 2.75 cm x 17 cm x 9.25 cm; 1 3/32 in x 6 11/16 in x 3 21/32 in
overall, box closed: 3 in x 17 in x 9 3/8 in; 7.62 cm x 43.18 cm x 23.8125 cm
box at 90 degree angle: 28 cm x 43.1 cm x 22.5 cm; 11 1/32 in x 16 31/32 in x 8 27/32 in
ID Number
MG.302606.738
accession number
302606
catalog number
302606.738
Credit Line
Gift of The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland
subject
Surgery
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Medicine
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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