A NEW OR IMPROVED PORTABLE MINIATURE DISPENSARY AND INSTRUMENT CASE FOR THE USE OF MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS, AND POR GENERAL PURPOSES
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmund Adolphus Kirby at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
February 1867.
I, EDMUND ADOLPHUS KIRBY, of Gordon Square, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW OR IMPROVED PORTABLE MINIATURE DISPENSARY AND INSTRUMENT
CASE FOR THE USE OF MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS, AND POR GENERAL PURPOSES," to be
as follows:
This case has been invented to supply medical men with à portable and
ready means of dispensing the medicines they prescribe during their visits to
their patients and at their own homes, and to afford a convenient mode of
carrying with them besides medicines certain chinical and other instruments
which are necessary and constantly required at the bedside in the investigation
or the treatment of disease or injuries, together with convenient writing
materials for taking notes or writing prescriptions. The Invention is also
designed and adapted to the requirements of travellers, colonists, and others
resident at a distance from medical men and chemists, and it is suitable for
domestic use and all the purposes for which a medicine chest is employed,
both by professional men and others.
The novelty of the Invention consists,―
Firstly, in the general construction and arrangment of the case by which
the uses and conveniences of several cases are combined in one with com-
pactness and economy of space, the whole being very portable, light, an'l

page_text: elegant in appearance, and combining in one case the following articles,
namely, a pocket instrument case, a catheter case, an enema apparatus case,
and a urinometer case, together with writing materials and a supply of
medicaments and drugs (in certain definite quantities), and other conveniences
necessary for dispensing purposes.
The case (which may be constructed of metal, wood, or other suitable
material) is made so as to open like a portable desk or despatch box having
two or more leaves connected by hinges; these leaves are divided by
means of partitions or divisions into separate compartments or spaces of
various forms and sizes, adapted to contain the clinical and other instruments
and appliances above referred to, so that each is kept in its proper place, and
when the case is opened the whole is exposed to view. That leaf or part of
the case which is to contain the glass tubes of medicaments and drugs herein-
after mentioned is provided with semi-cylindrical grooves in which the tubes
lie snugly each in its own groove. The case (if of wood or other similar
material) may be covered with morocco or other leather, and the whole or
parts lined with velvet, plush, or other soft material as a precautionary
measure against breakage, and to prevent the contents from rattling whilst
being carried.
Secondly, the novelty of the Invention consists in the construction and
arrangement of a contrivance which enables medical men and others to possess
in a single portable case those clinical instruments which are necessary for the
correct diagnosis of disease, and the remedies which are required for their
relief and cure, together with such surgical instruments and appliances as are
in common use for the dressing of wounds and for various surgical operations,
thus furnishing the medical man with the means of administering relief at
once without the delay attending the usual mode of dispensing, the whole
being comprised within the size of and combining the uses of an ordinary
writing desk or despatch box.