Surgical instruments as a window into the profession's past

A peek into the cabinets that house and preserve historical surgical instruments reveals both continuities and differences. From the square-sectioned iron needle that the Roman surgeon Celsus recommends for couching cataracts to the remote-control laser scalpels used today, instruments both serve the surgeon and influence how procedures can be conducted. The Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures is especially well-known, and there are collections of prints, medallions, seal matrices, coins, scientific instruments and medical instruments and paraphernalia.