Reprinted from the New YorTc Medical Journal for February Id, 1888. 
EAR INSTRUMENTS. 
By RUSSELL MURDOCH. M. D.. 
BALTIMORE. 
that the backward motion of the lever may alone be im- 
parted to the knife without its accompanying upward one 
and thus locking the knife in the sleeve, this flexible end 
rises with the lever, while the stiff, closely fitting rectangu- 
lar shank passes directly backward. The sleeve, however, 
is split in front, so as to allow a slight downward movement 
of the blade. This, added to the acute angle at which the 
blade is set to the shank, does away with a part of the 
usual downward pressure from the hand, as the knife rapidly 
cuts its way through the exquisitely painful furuncles of the 
external auditory meatus. 
Cannula Forceps.—This consists of a cannula, and a 
piston split into blades in front, and flexible, with a similar 
spool-like button for attachment to the lever in the rear. 
The lever operates the blades with the utmost precision, 
and imparts to them, as long as the thumb presses on the 
Snare.—It will be ob- 
served in the accompany- 
ing woodcut that, this snare 
differs from others in the 
manner of pulling the wire 
through its cannula. In- 
stead of sliding a sleeve, 
with the wire attached, by 
the index finger along a 
rectangular bar, the wire, 
in this case, is 
attached to and 
drawn by the short 
arm of a trigger-like lever 
placed on the back of the 
handle. The action is thus 
quicker and steadier, and 
is accomplished by the 
thumb of the operator 
pressing on the long arm 
of the lever, with less ex- 
ertion, and with a less com- 
plicated muscular move- 
ment. 
Furuncle Knife.—This second instrument, like the 
cannula of the snare, is passed through the sleeve portion 
of the handle, and, unlike it, is not fixed by the set-screw, 
but is allowed to have free play through it. It is then, by 
means of a spool-like button, attached to the forked ex- 
tremity of the small end of the lever, in order to make 
which attachment the button has to be lifted over the fork, 
and therefore, to accomplish that purpose, the proximal end 
of the knife is made flexible by a closely wrapped spiral 
wire around a central thin flexible core. In order, also, 
milled extremity of the long arm of the lever, the most un- 
yielding grasp. 
Porte-acide.—This likewise consists of a fixed cannula 
with a movable piston, also attached to the lever. The 
anterior cup-shaped extremity is made to protrude by 
the thumb on the lever, and, when armed with the acid, is 
withdrawn; then, when it is thus guarded, the desired spot 
is reached in the meatus, and it is protruded, after which it 
is again shielded and withdrawn. The convenience of such 
a one-handed application is the chief claim that this instru- 
ment offers for presentation to the profession. 
Note.—It need hardly be remarked that other instruments in use, 
such as a probe, tenotome, etc., can be inserted in the sleeve of this 
“ universal ” handle, and fixed by the set-screw; or that the size and 
general shape of the above-described instruments, as well as those of the 
handle, have been freely borrowed from well-known instruments in 
general use. The modifications above described have been made for 
me by Charles Newhause, instrument-maker, No. 506 North Eutaw 
Street, Baltimore.