[Keprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 
of December 9, 1897.] 
A UTERINE CUTTING FORCEPS.1 
W. L. BUBBAGE, M.D. 
The instrument figured in the accompanying cut is 
intended for the removal of polypi situated at the 
fundus uteri, and for smoothing rough surfaces in the 
same situation left after the morcellation of submucous 
Codman & Shurtleff, 
Boston. 
fibroids. It was designed to fill a place that is not 
taken by the long uterine scissors, the vulsellum 
forceps, the placenta forceps, the long hemostatic for- 
ceps with serrated blades or the Emmet curette for- 
1 Shown before the Obstetrical Society of Boston, November 16, 
1897. ceps or the curette. It is a powerful forceps made after 
the fashion of the long uterine scissors and the post- 
nasal cutting forceps, having the cutting blades at the 
end only. These blades are three-eighths of an inch 
wide, their corners being ground off so as to protect the 
guiding finger of the operator. They will cut only on 
a convex surface and therefore there is no danger of 
perforating the uterus. A fenestrum in each blade 
behind the cutting surface prevents the forceps from 
becoming clogged by the pieces of tissue as they are 
removed. The extreme length of the instrument is 
nine and a quarter inches, and there is a French lock 
two inches from the cutting edges. It is slender 
enough to work well through a moderately dilated 
cervix and yet it will cut cleanly through the toughest 
fibrous tissue. 
In operation it bites off the tissue, leaving a smooth 
surface behind; and, by virtue of the pinching that it 
gives the tissues, it lessens the tendency to hemorrhage- 
Used as a vulsellura in larger growths, especially the 
more friable ones, the blades being broad, sink into 
the tissue and do not tear through as do the teeth of 
the ordinary vulsellum. 
I have used the forceps on several cases and its suc- 
cessful work has more than equalled my expectations. 
The instrument was made for me by Codman & 
Shurtleff, of Boston.