[Wooden chests for the midwife's equipment]

In the museum of medical history in Lund there are several wooden chests containing partly identical instruments apparently belonging to a midwife. The instruments dated from before 1900, e.g. lancets and horn cups for blood-letting, a pewter enema syringe, a wooden stethoscope, a "tobacco pipe" and glass bottles. The use of the tobacco pipe was first puzzling, but it appeared to be a breast reliver. What do we know about the date of the chests? One chest has belonged to Kjersti Nilsdotter, a midwife educated in Lund 1872-1873. Her certificate was in the chest. From Ronnie Hunt, Minnesota we have got information about another chest of the same type. That belonged to Nelly Gustafsson, a midwife educated in Lund probably about 1870. She emigrated to USA and was a practising midwife in Lindstrom, Minnesota from about 1900.