In the 1830-50
period, amputation saws were much larger as were the amputation
knives and handles. ‘Beefy’ is the word you hear about the sizes of
the blades and especially the handles of the knives. For some
unknown reason about 1859-60, the handles and blades were made much
smaller by Tiemann & Co. to the point of being dainty, as is the ‘Parker’ ‘D’ handled
amputation saw. Surgical sets from Tiemann 1859-60 are almost delicate,
compared to earlier and later instruments. It was a ‘phase’ due to
someone requesting a smaller blade or a smaller handle on the saw.
See a
comparison between two
Tiemann 1855 to 1861 surgical sets
See a
comparison of
various surgical sets and their saws in this collection
Union Medical
Department surgeon
Richard Satterlee was in charge of the design of the
Medical and Hospital Department surgical sets during the Civil War.
Judging by the varied specifications, the first year, 1861, was a
free for all for the instrument makers other than those who had
supplied sets to the Medical Department before the war. As
the Civil War progressed, the size and heaviness of the handles and
blades increased dramatically under Satterlee’s direction and the
Hospital Department purchases. (If you were to go through the
collections on this web site, you would easily see this by
comparison.) Most likely this size increase was due to the size of
the men in the Army who specified the surgical sets at the time and
the need for heavy use. Purchases were made via the medical
purveyors who sent the specifications to the instrument makers via
the New York and Philadelphia military medical purveyor offices.
There is a whole
section on the website about the
medical purveyors and what they did.
The capital
amputation saws made during the war are ‘manly’ and big as are the
amputation knives and handles during the war. Maybe Satterlee had
big hands, who knows. Someone was ordering small saws
immediately before the war, so they had to fit their hands. Big
hands, big saws, little hands, little saws. (It is said the famous
English surgeon, Liston, had huge hands, thus his huge amputation
knives.)
Bottom-line: no one
knows if Satterlee was the one who 'approved the small Parker style
saw. If he did, it was in use just before and during the
early part of 1861, but the smaller size went out of favor until the 1880’s when
small delicate sterilizable amputation saws were again in vogue
through the turn of the next century.
Ref. Edmonson’s
book on American Surgical Instrument makers prior to 1900 has lots
of information on this topic of variations in all kinds of
instruments and the purchases during the Civil War.
