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A small cutting-knife, used in surgery.-so called, according to Huet, from the town of Pistori, which was formerly celebrated for the manufacture of those instruments. A bistoury has the form of a small knife, and is composed of a blade and a handle. The blade, which is most commonly movable in the handle, may be fixed by a button, spring, &c. When fixed in the handle, the bistouri is called by the French. B. a lame fixe ou dormante. The chief bistouries are :-1. The straight B. (F.) B. droit, in which the blade and cutting edge are straight, the point being fine, round, or square. 2. The convex B. (F.) B. convexe; the blade of which is convex at the cutting edge, concave at the back. 3. The concave B. (F.) B. concave; the blade of which is concave at its edge, and convex at the back. 4. Blunt-pointed B. (F.) B. boutonne; the blade of which has a button at its extremity. 5. The blunt or probe- pointed Bistoury of Pott; concave at its cutting edge, and its point blunt; so that it can be carried on the palmar surface of the index finger, to divide the stricture, in strangulated hernia. Sir Astley Cooper has recommended a useful modification of this, to avoid wounding the intestine, should it come in contact with the edge of the knife. His Bistoury has an edge of not more than eight lines in length, situate about five lines from the point. 6. Bistouri a la lime, (F.) is a straight bistoury; the blade fixed in the handle, the extremity with a button, and the edge made with a file. It is chiefly used for dilating parts. 7. Bistouri Royal, (F.) A Bistouri used in operating upon Louis XIV., for fistula in ano. 8. Bistouri gastrique, (F.) A complicated instrument, invented by Morand, for dilating wounds of the abdomen. 9. Bistouri cache, B. herniaire, ou Attrape-lourdaud de Biennaise, Forceps decepto'ria. A curved bistouri, the blade of which is placed in a canula, whence it issues on pressing a spring. The word Bistouri is used by the French, at times, where we would employ knife.