Medical device

“ Now, investors are bringing to our country factories that produce hi-tech equipment: from aircraft components, electric tricycles, printers, and other digital media products, to high-quality medical devices like aortic catheters and devices for in vitro diagnostics and hemodialysis treatment. ”

“ The hospital and drug store hold all that is wanted by modern medical science. There is an operating-room containing every known appliance useful in surgery; the whole room is finished in marble tiling, while all the metal work is shining nickel. Here is the electric apparatus necessary to operations, a Roentgen ray apparatus, batteries for treatment of certain diseases, and, in fact, all the devices and mechanisms used in a city hospital. ”

“ As it is one of our objects in our practice here to study the scope and the limits of electricity as a remedy in disease, it seemed to me not inappropriate to devote my first Lectures to electro-therapeutics; and the more so, as few medical men have a practical knowledge of the subject ”

“ Addressing you who are engaged in active practice, with little time to devote to medical electricity, it will, I think, be more acceptable for me not to weary you with a tedious discourse upon the elementary principles of electricity, for the practical application of these matters concerns rather the instrument-maker than the medical practitioner, and I shall discuss none of them, except incidentally, and with precise reference to their application to medicine. ”

“ This union of that grand vitalizing and restorative agent, Electricity, in a gentle and continuous current, with a highly Medicated Plaster composed of the choicest medicinal gums and balsams known to modern pharmacy, each in itself a curative marvel, is the grandest medical triumph of this century. It is instantly soothing, healing and strengthening. ”

“ As a curious Electrical Machine, they should be in the possession of every one, while their wonderful efficacy as a medical agent, renders them invaluable. They are used with extraordinary success, for the following maladies. ”

“ Two years later he first tried the effect of electro-puncture of the muscles on a patient under his care, and from this time on devoted himself more and more to the medical applications of electricity, thereby laying the foundation of the modern science of electro-therapeutics. ”

“ But the medical faculty have too widely employed electricity in the treatment of disease, and that with too frequent success, to admit of its being denied a place among important therapeutic agents by any respectable practitioner. ”

“ Electric machinery for the refining of metals is dealt with in the article Electrochemistry (Vol. 9, p. 208) . Under Surgical Instruments (Vol. 26, p. 133) there is a description of the apparatus used for cautery and for illuminating parts of the interior of the body. The appliances used in Electrotherapeutics are dealt with under that heading (Vol. 9, p. 249) . Information as to other medical and surgical apparatus will be found under Röntgen Rays (Vol. 23, p. 694) , X-Ray Treatment (Vol. 28, p. 887) , by Dr. H. L. Jones, of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London ”

“ When the patient wishes to speak, the upper end of the last-mentioned tube is either placed in the angle of the mouth or passed through the nose to the back of the pharynx, and the air which has been made to vibrate in the inner tube is thus carried to the mouth. This instrument is easy to adjust and clean, produces remarkable phonetic effects, and is much the most ingenious and serviceable device that has so far been invented. In some cases, however, a patient can make himself understood without an instrument of any kind. ”

“ Although a 'device' expressly cannot be a 'drug' under the last phrase of the drug definition above, a device is given almost a parallel definition in § 201 (h) :
'The term 'device' * * * means instruments, apparatus, and contrivances, including their components, parts, and accessories, intended (1) for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals; or (2) to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals.' 21 U.S.C. § 321 (h) . ”

“ These manual movements upon the surface of the body will often excite muscular sensibility, similar to that awakened by a weak Faradic current. The internal medicines should be such as to regulate the general functions of the system. The use of these remedies must be directed by the skill and experience of those who are professionally qualified to administer hem. ”

“ The facilities of the Sanitarium for the treatment of disease are the best known to modern medical science. In addition to baths of every description, including Turkish, Russian, vapor, electro-vapor, thermal, etc., the employment of massage, Swedish movements, and the various forms of electrical treatment, are provided for by costly appliances, some of which were designed expressly for this institution. ”

“ Instead of depleting, we, by proper constitutional treatment, strengthen and fortify the system. We do not confine the patient in bed, but permit him to go around and take all necessary exercise. We adjust an ingeniously devised and perfectly fitting appliance or apparatus, by which a gentle extension of the limb is maintained, thereby relieving the tension of the muscles, and preventing the friction and wearing of the inflamed surfaces of the joint, which, without the use of our new and improved appliance, are a source of constant irritation. ”

“ And accordingly there is among the appliances of medical men an instrument by which the private parts are dilated with a priapiscus worked by a screw, and also a ring-knife whereby the limbs are cut off in the womb with judicious care, and a blunt hook by which the whole mass is extracted and a violent form of delivery in this way effected. There is also a bronze stylet with which a secret death is inflicted ”

“ All ten machines were paragons of discretion. Each urged the patient to visit her doctor, or bore some other innocuous medical platitude. They were designed to painlessly accommodate the confirmed hypochondriac without wasting a busy doctor's time. And yet when a truly sick person indicated genuine symptoms, the diagnosis was general but accurate. The instruction to see a physician at once was urgently definite.
I was back before the dollar machine musing at my ugly expression in the mirror, when a light female voice behind me said, "I believe you have the wrong room, gentlemen." ”

“ A major source for nineteenth-century instruments is the collection of instruments used by the members of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, a medical society founded in 1799. The Smithsonian collection also includes patent models of bloodletting instruments submitted to the U.S. Patent Office by nineteenth-century inventors and transferred to the Smithsonian in 1926. ”

“ If the disease be located in the hips or lower limbs, put the feet in warm water with the tin electrode N. P., or place the sponge-roll N. P. at the soles of the feet, and treat with P. P. upon and a little above the affected parts; using such force of current as the patient can bear. The pain will commonly subside under treatment. If the disease be as low as the ankles or feet, use the long cord with N. P.
If the shoulders, arms or hands be affected, treat them on the same principles as are prescribed for the lower limbs; using the long cord with N. P. when the disease is below the elbows. ”

“ The physician is required to note the patient's appearance, eye, tongue, skin, pulse, voice, urine, and faeces. The examination of the pulse is, however, considered the most important of all, as furnishing the best criterion of the phenomena and progress of disease, and it is the one usually depended upon by the native doctors. In order to know the precise character of the pulse, the radial artery at the wrist is usually chosen. In case of a male patient, his right pulse is generally felt, and in case of a female the left. ”

“ Of course, in treating cases at a distance, we cannot avail ourselves of all the great variety of apparatus brought into use at our Invalids Hotel, yet we have some forms of machines well adapted for home use, and so simple that, by sending plain printed directions with the machines, our patients are able to use them effectively without the aid of the physician. ”

“ Another purpose of the invention is to provide a device which will act with rela­tion to the male or the female body to relieve all the vital organs from internal pressure without injuring the stomach, spine, ribs, or other important organs. ”

“ In the Surgical Department, every instrument and appliance approved by the modern operator is provided, and many and ingenious are the instruments and devices that the Faculty of this institution have invented and perfected to meet the wants of their numerous cases. ”

“ Liebig, one of the recognized authorities on the science in the United States, treats fully such topics of interest as Storage Bat- teries, Dynamos, the Electric Light, and the Principles and Practice of Electrical Measurement in their Relations to Medical Practice. Professor Rohe, who writes on Electro-Therapeutics, discusses at length the recent developments of Electricity in the treatment of stricture, enlarged prostate, uterine fibroids, pelvic cellulitis, and other diseases of the male and female genito-urinary organs. ”

“ The device only transmits when it receives the proper signal. We gave you time to reach your destination and then followed you. We lost you for a while in Freiburbad, but picked up your trail again in the hospital, right after you played musical chairs with the corpses. We lent you a hand there, the hospital was justifiably annoyed but we managed to keep them quiet. After that it was just a matter of keeping an eye on doctors and surgical equipment since your next move was obvious. I hope you'll be pleased to know that you are carrying a very compact little transmitter in your sternum. ”

“ The advances in general medical science and practice have also necessitated great elaboration of the resources for the study and treatment of the physical condition of the patients. Instruments of precision, laboratories, x-ray departments, dental and surgical operating rooms, massage and hydrotherapy departments, facilities for eye, throat, nose, and ear examinations and treatment, and all the other means of determining disease processes and applying proper treatment have been supplied and the methods and standards of modern clinical medicine and surgery are utilized. ”

“ These machines transmit motion to [pg 373] the body from inexhaustible sources, never tire, but are ever ready for new, remedial conquests. The movements administered by their use, while entirely under the control of the patient, are never disagreeable, and are far more rapid and intense than can possibly be given by the hands. By the application of short, quick movements of from twelve to fifteen hundred vibrations a minute, deep-seated organs and parts are reached, to which motion is transmitted and in which vital energy is thereby generated. ”

“ Thus, to be successful in the treatment of paralysis and other nervous diseases, by the application of motor forces with our ingeniously-contrived machinery, the cost of which is beyond the means of most invalids, one must exercise great discretion. ”

“ My invention relates to improvements in surgical appliances and more particularly to devices for preventing masturbation by males, the object of the invention being to provide an improved device of this character which may be secured on the body of the patient and which cannot be removed by the patient, and which will absolutely prevent any attempt on the part of the patient to masturbate. ”

“ If the patient be a man we let his trunk be disrobed, giving free access to the back, chest and abdomen. If the patient be a woman, let her be covered with a treating-robe, [89] of which garments the practitioner should keep a supply. They are made much like a lady's plain nightgown; but large and loose, so as to serve ladies of any size, and give ample room to work the electrodes under them. Her skirts should be dropped below the seat, so far that their bands shall lie across her lap.
Let us now suppose the machine to be working. We will take the B D current. ”

“ This purchasing office bought all surgical dressings, surgical instruments, and medicines and such items as were used in the field, post, veterinary, and dental stations.
In connection with the production of surgical instruments in this country it was necessary for the Medical Department to educate in the manufacture of these instruments certain concerns which had been engaged in the production of similar devices. Men skilled in the manufacture of instruments, with long years of experience, were sent to these factories to work out with the forces there satisfactory processes. ”

“ There are series of obstetrical appliances, instruments relating to bone surgery, to the taking up of arteries, cupping instruments, trepanning instruments, speculums, hypodermic syringes, electric cauteries, fracture appliances, instruments for lithotrity, bandages for varicose veins, atomizers, breast pumps, inhalers, nasal douches, trusses, pessaries, catheters, abdominal supporters, and an endless variety of proprietary [250] articles, such as electric baths and belts, plasters, chest protectors, liver pads, and so forth, all of which are practically the products of the Nineteenth Century. ”

“ If there be a feverish condition of the system, attended, perhaps, with pain in the head, place P. P. on the spine, a little below the cranium, and treat with N. P., long cord, all the way down the spine, and over the entire back, sides, thorax and abdomen. In this case let the current be rather mild, and be continued for a considerable length of time, with the view of bringing out perspiration. It is best that the patient should receive treatment in bed, perfectly protected from any cool air that might restrain or check perspiration. ”