General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

10

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

metal & synthetic components; paper liner in battery compartment.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

20.7 cm

Width

3.7 cm

Height

4.1 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Medical Technology

Category

Instruments

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Hollister Stier

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

This type of scarifier available c. 1930. This example appears new/little used.

Canada

Part of a large collection of medical artifacts, archival material & trade literature transferred to CSTM in 2002 from the former History of Medicine Museum, Toronto, ON.

Function

To break skin during administration of percutaneous or "prick" method allergy testing.

Technical

Battery-operated scarifier. Prick testing performed when testing for, and identifying allergies causing "atopic" disease (rhinitis, rhino-conjunctivitis, allergies to pets, insect-stings, certain food allergies, etc. To administer the tests, a drop of a concentrated extract is placed on the skin, then the skin is pricked through the drop with a scarifier. Typically, 15 minutes later the skin is examined for redness, swelling, irritation, etc. and graded as to the severity of the reaction (if any) observed.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

None evident, save UHN catalogue no. "979.1.10 C" printed by hand in black ink on instrument casing.

Missing

Unknown- appears complete.

Finish

Bright silver metal casing; rounded white opaque synthetic area links instrument body to dull silver metal head; unbleached paper liner inside battery compartment.

Decoration

N/A