Bullet Probe (2019.06.015)

Bullet Probe (2019.06.015)

Nebraska State Tuberculosis Hospital, Artifact, Dr. Burton Bancroft, Bullet Probe

Small, thin, dark-colored metal bullet probe.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: There is information about Dr. Burton Bancroft in the Frank Museum archives, as well as in the paper accession record. AW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As guns and bullets began widespread use, doctors were presented with a new problem. Bullets, when entering the body, are hot and tend to shatter putting many hot, foreign objects in the body. This can cause inflammation, infection, and if left untreated, sepsis and death. Though medical treatments and technology would evolve with each war, the wars of the 1800s saw a huge transition towards modern military medicine. One such technology was the bullet probe. The bullet probe was invented by Auguste Nélaton, a French surgery professor. Nélaton, along with many other doctors, was treating the Italian general Garibaldi for a bullet wound to the ankle. Nélaton believed that the bullet was still in Garibaldi’s ankle, but had a difficult time proving it. Doctors had a hard time determining what was bone and what was a bullet with regular probes, and so Nélaton invented a probe with a porcelain tip, which would become marked if it hit a bullet, but remained unmarked if it hit bone. The probe proved successful, and was soon mass-produced and used all over the world, and the American Civil War proved that the probes were a necessity for a modern military surgeon. Soon, however, less-invasive methods of finding bullets and fragments came into use, like x-rays. Bullet probes were then used by doctors to determine the angle and path of the bullet/fragments, rather then determining if there was a bullet/fragments. Bullet probes were then modified, with the porcelain removed and just being made of metal with a rounded, soft, and smooth tip that allowed the probe to easily move through the wound without causing more damage. Bullet probes are still used today with little modification to the base design. Information gathered from: LincolnConspirators.com (https://lincolnconspirators.com/2012/06/29/artifact-history-nelaton-probe/) Science Museum Group Journal (http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-11/ambroise-pare/early-methods-of-treating-gunshot-wounds/) Omnia Health (https://www.omnia-health.com/product/bullet-probe-instruments) Information compiled by Logan Osmera.

ca. 1950s

For all objects in accession # 2019.06: Doctor's bag, medical equipment, medicine, and other items all originally belonged to Dr. Burton Bancroft who came to Kearney is 1956 and was the first trained surgeon in the community, according to John Bancroft- Dr. Burton Bancroft's son who found the the doctor's bag in a closet. The bag contained all of the items within accession record #2019.06. Dr. Bancroft occasionally provided aid to patients at the Nebraska State Hospital for Tuberculosis in Kearney, NE.

Metal Bullet Probe