Medical Outfit of Dr. Herbert H. Flagg

Description:

Medical Outfit of Dr. Herbert H. Flagg, a brass-bound rosewood veneered amputation set with gilt label of William Snowden, Philadelphia, the two tiers containing marked Snowden instruments with cross-hatched ebony handles, including various scalpels, probes and bistouries, finger saw, two Liston knives, bone forceps with steel handle, tourniquet, Hey saw with ebony handle, brush, trephine and other instruments, wd. 16 in., (little used, lacking lid escutcheon); Snowden pocket surgical set containing lancets, suture thread, and other items, in leather wallet, wd. 5 1/2 in.; a capital surgery set of bone-handled instruments by W. Eyers, Kern and others, in fitted leather case with gilt stamp of W. Eyers, Surgical & Dental Instruments, 137 E. 28 St., N.Y., embossed on lid H. H. Flagg, M.D., wd. 8 in.; a cased set of urethral dilators by W. Eyers with Dr. Flagg's embossed stamp on lid, wd. 14 in.; a set of optical instruments in embossed leather-covered case; an optical testing set in rosewood veneered case, wd. 16 in.; and Dr. Flagg's card from Springfield, Massachusetts.

Provenance: Herbert H. Flagg, M.D. began medical practice in 1881, served in Northampton from 1891 to 1894, and in Springfield thereafter. He made international news in 1892 by healing the broken neck of Michale Mahar of Haydenville by reducing the fracture while the patient was confined at the Cooley Dickinson Hospital. He was one of the first to have attempted this procedureat a time when the normal course of action was to make death as easy as possible.
Estimate $4,000-6,000

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