Cautery Set
Object Details
- Description
- Cautery set devised by Claude Andre Paquelin (1836-1905), a physician in Paris, as modified by Henry Park Curtis Wilson (1827-1897), a gynecologist in Baltimore. In this form, the cauterizing point is hollow and contains platinum sponge, and the heat is maintained by blowing benzine vapor into this sponge. This example belonged to J. Oliver Purvis (1880-1962), a doctor in Annapolis. An inscription reads “J. E. LEE CO. / ROY & CO. N.Y. / PAT. DEC. 29. 92.”
- John Elwood Lee (1860-1914) began making surgical instruments in his parents’ home in Conshohocken, Pa., in 1879. In 1905 he merged his operations with Johnson & Johnson. F. M. Roy & Co., of New York, advertised as “Proprietors of DR. PAQUELIN’S THERMO-CAUTERY.”
- Ref: Henry Park Custis Wilson, Paquelin’s Thermo-Cautery with Wilson’s Antithermic Shield (1879).
- Ad for F. M. Roy & Co., “Proprietors of DR. PAQUELIN’S THERMO-CAUTERY,” in Boston Medical and Surgical Journal CXIV (June 30, 1886): 10.
- “Dr. Paquelin’s Cautery (Thermo Cautery” in Sharp & Smith, Catalogue of . . . Surgical Instru-ments (Chicago, 1889), pp. 698-699.
- John Ellwood Lee, “Thermocauterer,” U.S. Patent 490,969 (Jan. 31, 1892).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- ID Number
- MG.302606.238
- accession number
- 302606
- catalog number
- 302606.238
- maker
- J. Ellwood Lee Company
- Object Name
- Case
- cautery set
- surgical set
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- fabric (overall material)
- fabric, silk (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- black (overall color)
- purple (overall color)
- string, cotton (set material)
- metal, steel (set material)
- Measurements
- average spatial: 10.5 cm x 18 cm x 13.5 cm; 4 1/8 in x 7 1/16 in x 5 5/16 in
- overall: 4 3/8 in x 7 1/8 in x 5 1/4 in; 11.1125 cm x 18.0975 cm x 13.335 cm
- place made
- United States: Pennsylvania, Conshohocken
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Record ID
- nmah_1131336
