Sim’s guillotine fetal extraction instrument , c. 1801-1900
On application
A 19th century Sim’s guillotine fetal extraction signed A. Aubry. The instrument is made of steel with a ship’s rudder screw and guilloche ebony handle. Its mechanism is functional and regreased. The Wellcome Collection pocesses several items by this manufacturer of medical instruments.
Variations of this instruments are mentioned in an 1866 exhibition catalogue of ‘obstetrical and other instruments’. The exhibition was organized in the Library of the Royal College of Physicians by the Obstetrical Society of London. It had an international character and had the aim and purpose of ‘bringing together the instruments that have been used in different ages and in different countries for the purpose of overcoming those obstetric difficulties which are met with in all ages and all countries.’ The exhibition told the stories about instruments, the inventors, the producers, the difficulties they had, the improvements they made. It also made considerations instrument makers of which the instruments were the tangible symbols of the story.
In this catalogue Sims was mentioned 24 times in the exhibition catalogue and therefore one of the most productive contributors. J. Marion Sims is known as the “father of modern gynaecology,” developing and pioneering tools and surgical techniques related to women’s reproductive health. His work has become highly controversial nowadays as his research was conducted on enslaved Black women without anaesthesia. He was the first American doctor to get a statue for his services, which was teared down in 2018.
Length: 40 cm.
