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WORLD WAR ONE VARIANT
SYRINGE CASE
- POSSIBLY PREDATING THE STANDARD "US MEDICAL
DEPARTMENT" SYRINGE CASE - VERY INTERESTING EXAMPLE:
This early 20TH Century Syringe Case was
found in a grouping of medals, insignia, war-time
souvenirs, and personal effects of four brothers, all of
whom were World War One veterans. While very
similar in content and size to the familiar "US MEDICAL
DEPARTMENT" stamped syringe cases which are known to
have been carried in the World War One Medical Officer's
Belt, this syringe case is of a different design and may
very well pre-date those known cases.
According to surviving records,
prior to World War One the majority of medical
instruments used in the United States were imported from
Europe, primarily from England, France, and Germany.
By 1916, the demands in England and France to support
their own war efforts, coupled with the embargoes in
place by, and against, Germany had critically stemmed
the flow of medical instruments coming into the United
States. Not only did this shortage affect the
medical profession's ability to provide service to its
patients nationwide, but it also created a glaring
problem for the US Army and Navy Medical Departments as
they mobilized for our own participation in the war.
While the history of how those departments responded to
this problem is long and complex, of special note is
that in the face of the limited experience and
capability to manufacture the instruments in the United
States, and the multi-pronged demand for raw materials
to satisfy the war effort, the decision was made to
identify those instruments critical to providing basic
care, tailor the basic designs of the instruments to the
capability of the U.S. manufacturers, and then restrict
and allocate the available materials to produce only
those necessary instruments in only the approved
patterns as dictated by the authority of the production
boards. [If you are interested in the full
history of these production boards as it applies to
medical instruments for the services during World War
One, or the history of military logistics in general,
you can access an excellent excerpt posted on the AMEDD
Center of History and Heritage website via this link:
https://achh.army.mil/history/book-wwi-finance-supply-ch34rev
].
After considerable searching, I
was able to find only one other example of the syringe
case offered here. Based on the apparent rarity of
this pattern, and the number of the familiar "US MEDICAL
DEPARTMENT" marked syringe cases which survive, I
believe this pattern predates the onset of World War One
and in light of dictates of the production boards, this
style was abandoned.
The case is made of aluminum, is hinged along the long
axis of the case, and is stamped "LEADER", apparently
the maker's name. The case is full form, the hinge
functions properly and the opposing catch keeps the case
closed. The case contains a fully functional
syringe, one needle assembly,
two glass medicine vials with the cork stoppers intact, and two
nickel plated metal tubes which are threaded on each
end. These two tubes are obviously original to
this case, but I do not know for what purpose they were
intended.
The syringe bears no maker's mark, but the plunger is
marked with the dosage increments. The syringe is fully functional,
can be completely disassembled (many of these early
syringes are frozen and do not function), and the threads on the tip
of the syringe and in the socket of the
needle are clear and functional.
This syringe
case retains its original OD colored wool felt bag,
identical in color to the US MEDICAL DEPARTMENT syringe
cases, but rather than having a flap and snap closure,
this bag was closed with a draw string. The bag
has suffered from mothing with quite a bit of the
material now missing, but the overall shape of the bag
is still apparent. Likewise, the top edge of the
bag has some mothing damage, but enough of the draw
string is surprisingly still present to determine how it
was arranged. Considering how rare the syringe
case bags are and how few of them
survived, that this bag with its variant design is present with this Syringe
Case is a definite added value.
This is a very interesting syringe case, no doubt
produced prior to, or possibly during, World War One,
and given the color of the wool felt case, was almost
certainly intended for use by the army. This
variant will be an unusual and notable addition to your US Army Medical Department
collection. (0207)
$150
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