Category: Bleeding and Cupping
Estimated Date: 1850
Name: Single Blade Silver Scarificator

Description: 2 1/8” x 5/16” silver scarificator with 0.25” blade, lever cocking mechanism, and side arm release. Nicely etched in a ridged pattern around the sides. Scarificators were pocket bleeding devices that are extremely common. The original concepts of an imbalance of “humors” causing disease dates back to Chines Medicine. Cupping and Bleeding are two of the products of this theory. Just as it was thought that cupping would draw out an imbalance of harmful humors in the body, so it was also thought that bleeding would restore this balance. People practiced bleeding at home with or without a physician. Leeches or simple lancets were also used for bleeding. It is thought that George Washington died of a pulmonary infection because of repeated bleeding that greatly diminished his strength.

Reference 1: 293