Historical Information about Hey's Saw


Photo of Sir William Hey's own saws, made for him in 1803, from which all later "Liston's knives" descend. Source: Bennion, Antique Medical Instruments, 23. The broader lineage of Hey's knives is apparent from this set of skull saws, from Albucases (12/13th cent.); Wryghtson (14th cent.); Andreas del Croce (2 examples, 16th cent.); Cockell's (1783); Hey's (6 examples, 1803); later-pattern Hey's (6 examples). Hey's wrote in his Practical Observations on Surgery (1803), "Such a saw I can with confidence recommend after a trial of twenty years, during which time I have rarely used the trephine in fractures of the skull." Source: Thompson, History and Evolution of Surgical Instruments (1942), 57-59.


Return to entry