Yesterday an amazing and thought provoking symposium entitled
Incarcerated Bodies took place in
Kilmainham Gaol. It looked at the history of hunger strikes, the instruments used to force feed patients and prisoners and how 'dark collections' should, or should not, be exhibited. Not for the faint-hearted!
Having presented a paper entitled 'Force Feeding Implements in the RCSI Heritage Collections', the thought occurred to us why not feature one of these implements as an 'Intriguing Heritage Item'.
So tah dah!!
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Lid of wooden case holding a 19th century stomach pump with 'Stomach Pump' written on it
RCSI/MI/169 |
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Stomach pump
RCSI/MI/169 |
This stomach pump which is housed in a beautiful velvet lined wooden box is from the 19th century and unfortunately doesn't have any makers mark on it. The pump itself is brass and is accompanied by tapered bone or ivory implements, a black wooden bite bar and two pieces of tubing; one thick cloth and the other India rubber.
Today a stomach pump is used to empty the stomach of it's contents. In centuries gone by it preformed this function but it was also used to pump food into the stomach or rectum if a patient was unable to eat, swallow, administer anaesthetics, stimulants, drugs etc. It was also used to carry out enemas.
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| Brass stomach pump |
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| Tapered bone or ivory implements, black wooden bite bar and tubing |
Just in case you wanted to know exactly how the instrument is used, below is an illustration taken from the Down's Medical Instrument and Hospitals Appliances Catalogue of 1906 to show you!
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| How one should use their stomach pump! |
- Researched and written by Meadhbh Murphy
