Antique Physician's Venipuncture Kit, Becton Dickinson Glass Syringe & Needles in Labelled Box

A physician's blood-drawing outfit made up in a repurposed Gebauer's Ethyl Chloride box, the lid carrying a red-bordered label inscribed in the doctor's own hand: "Syringe and needle to use in withdrawing blood from veins." Inside, bedded in cotton wool, is a glass syringe marked Becton Dickinson & Co. with a pair of steel needles.

Becton, Dickinson and Company of Rutherford, New Jersey were the great American syringe makers of the period, and an all-glass syringe of this type could be boiled whole between patients. The improvised box and handwritten label are what make the piece: this is how a working practice actually equipped itself, an empty anesthetic carton pressed into service and labelled so the right kit came to hand in a hurry.