These knives are amputation knives used by Robert Liston. In an era when anaesthetics were not commonplace, Liston was known for his surgical skill and speed A very famous story told about Liston was regarding an amputation he had carried out on a leg in under 21⁄2 minutes. Not only did the patient die afterwards in the ward from hospital gangrene, he also amputated the fingers of his young assistant who also died from gangrene. Furthermore, Liston slashed through the coat tails of a surgical spectator, who dropped dead from fright. This was the only operation in history with an alleged 300 percent mortality. While this makes for a great story, there is no primary sources to corroborate the tale.

A slightly unusual object from the museum; a knuckle-duster owned by Frederick Smith, a dentist from Chesterfield. This would have been carried by Smith as he travelled from his home in Chesterfield to his practice in Alfreton, a distance of around 25 miles, where he would travel by a horse drawn carriage. Smith, who practiced from the mid 1800’s to the early 1900’s, would have been at risk from robbery by highwaymen, so he would have kept this knuckle-duster with him for protection.

A chair such as this was used during childbirth. The headrest at the back is adjustable, providing the necessary support to suit the patient’s needs. In addition to this the base can be anchored to the floor during childbirth, providing stability. This particular birthing chair in the museum has four legs, but some do have three.

This brandy decanter was used to store chloroform by James Young Simpson during his discovery of the anaesthetic properties of the chemical in 1847. The word "BRANDY" is inscribed on the front of the decanter. Simpson used a particularly foolhardy approach to testing the potential anaesthetic properties of various chemicals. At his Queen Street residence, Simpson and his associates would inhale the fumes given off by different substances and record the effects. After little success, they came to try chloroform on the evening of 8th November 1847. Upon inhaling the vapours, Simpson and his colleagues found themselves "under the mahogany" having all become unconscious! On 10th November, Simpson announced his discovery at a meeting of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society, and it was soon being used as an anaesthetic across Europe.  

This brass shoulder badge would have been worn on the shoulder of someone who worked for the Scottish Women’s Hospital. When war broke out in 1914, people wanted to do what they could to support the war effort. Elsie Inglis, an innovative doctor and a well-known suffragist, immediately offered her services as a surgeon for the war effort. After being turned down at the War Office, she was famously told ‘My good lady, go home and sit still.’ Inglis then formed a plan to create fully equipped mobile Red Cross hospital units staffed by women, under the name of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Services.

The first units were sent to France and Serbia in December 1914. By the end of the war it is estimated that some 1000 women served in 14 fully equipped field hospitals in Serbia, France, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Corsica and Malta.

This particular portrait of Joseph Bell was painted in 1896 by George Fiddes Watt. Bell, like many other 19th century surgeons, started his surgical career as a House Surgeon with James Syme and was his special assistant for five years. After demonstrating in Anatomy under John Goodsir he was appointed as an extra-academical Lecturer in Surgery and then in Clinical Surgery before he became the first surgeon to the newly created Department of Surgery in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 1887. Prior to that time most operations