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a surgical knife with a pointed double-edged blade; used for punctures and small incisions

a surgical knife with a pointed double-edged blade; used for punctures and small incisions

An iron bar used for tapping a melting furnace.

An iron bar used for tapping a melting furnace.

Extremely sharp little knife, with a point, used for opening boils, etc.

A surgical instrument used for opening veins, etc.: a high and narrow window, pointed like a lance.

A surgical instrument for letting blood, &c.

A surgeons instrument with one or more small, keen blades.

An acutely pointed window.

-diminutive of lancea, ' a lance.' A surgical instrument, used in the operation of filebotomy. It is composed of two parts, the handle, (F.) Chasse, and the blade, (F.) Lame. The former is made of two small plates of ivory, bone, or shell, movable on the blade for whose preservation they are intended. The blade is formed of well-polished steel. Lancets are made of different shapes; some being broad-shouldered- others, spear-pointed. The French distinguished three kinds: 1. Lancette a grain d'orge, which, on account of the almost oval shape of its point, makes a large opening. 2. The L. a langue de serpent, which is very narrow towards the point; and, 3. L. a grain d'avoine, which holds a medium station between the two former, and is generally preferred. The Abscess Lancet is merely a large lancet for the purpose of opening abscesses. The employment of a lancet, for opening abscesses, etc., is called Lancing.

Small pointed two-edged surgical knife.

A small, pointed, doubleedged surgical knife. [Old Fr., Fr.]

n. [French] A surgical instrument, sharp-pointed and two-edged, used in venesection, and in opening tumours, abscesses, &c.