Title: Ivory handled instruments

Identifier: Country Doctor Museum   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/14381)

Description: This mid-19th century set of five ivory handle medical instruments was made by New York instrument manufacturer Hermann Hernstein. The instruments include a hernia knife, a tendon hook, a metacarpal saw, a trocar, and a bistoury. The set belonged to Dr. Matthew Moore Butler (1838-1913) of Bristol, Tennessee. Butler graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1860 and during the Civil War, he served in the Confederate medical corps. After the conflict, Dr. Butler worked as a country doctor in Boone County, Kentucky and Bristol, Tennessee.