Tonsillotome
notes: label: Description
content: The tonsillotome offered surgeons a convenient way to remove inflamed tonsils and helped transform the tonsillotomy into a somewhat routine procedure. Philip Syng Physick (1768-1837), a physician with a degree from the University of Edinburgh who practiced and taught in Philadelphia, described his "tonsil guillotine" in 1828. He never claimed to have invented the form but acknowledged that that his design was a modification of one that Benjamin Bell had described in his System of Surgery. William B. Fahnestock, a physician in Lancaster, Pa., modified Physick’s tonsillotome by substituting for the single plate, two circular rings mounted on shaft, containing between them a concealed ring knife. Fahnestock called his instrument a tonsillarum. This example seems to be of that sort. The handle is ivory.
label: Description
content: Ref: Philip Syng Physick, “Case of Obstinate Cough, occasioned by elongation of the Uvula, in which a portion of that organ was cut off, with a description of the instrument employed for that purpose, and also for excision of scirrhous tonsils,” American Journal of the Medical Sciences 2 (1828): 262-266.
label: Description
content: William B. Fahnestock, “Description of an Instrument for Excision of the Tonsils,” American Journal of the Medical Sciences 11 (1832): 249.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.302606.270.02
label: accession number
content: 302606
label: catalog number
content: 302606.270.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tonsillotome
label: Other Terms
content: Tonsilotome; Cutting Tools
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ivory (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 22.5 cm x 2.6 cm x 1.3 cm; 8 7/8 in x 1 in x 1/2 in