Bloodletting Instruments in the National Museum of History and Technology

by Audrey B. Davis; Toby A. Appel

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Figure 36.—18th-century cutler’s illustrations for making lancets. Note the variations in the shape of the lancet blades. (From Jean Jacques Perret, L’Art du Coutelier, Paris, 1772. Photo courtesy of NLM.)

Figure 37.—Thumb lancet, 16th century. (From Leonardo Botallo, De Curatione per Sanguinis Missionem, Antwerp, 1583. Photo courtesy of NLM.)

Figure 38.—Typical 19th-century thumb lancets, engraved “S. Maw, London.” (NMHT 139980 [M-4151]; SI photo 73-4230.)