160 PREPARATION AND MOUNTING 
hands may be supported when working upon the stage. 
They should be weighty enough to be free from danger of 
moving. These supports will also be found to remedy 
much of the weariness which inevitably arises from having 
to sustain the hands as well as work with them. The 
erector, as I before observed, is necessary to a young student; 
but with a little practice he may work-very well without it. 
We will now notice some of the instruments which are 
most useful in dissection. Two or three different sizes of 
ordinary scissors should be possessed, but the shapes must 
be as modified in others for many purposes, as those used by 
surgeons; a pair with the cutting parts bent in a hori- 
zontal direction, and another pair slightly curved in a 
perpendicular; so that parts of the substance operated upon 
may be reached, which it would be impossible to touch with 
straight scissors. One point of these is sometimes blunt, 
and the other acute, being thus made very useful in opening 
tubular formations. Another form of these is made, where 
the blades of the scissors are kept open by a spring, the 
handles being pressed together by the fingers. Where it is 
desirable, one or both of these handles may be lengthened to 
any degree by the addition of small pieces of wood. 
Tue Knives which are most useful are those of the 
smallest kind which surgeons employ in very delicate opera- 
tions. These are made about the length of an ordinary. 
pen-knife, and are fixed in rather long flattish handles; 
some are curved inwards, like the blade of a scythe, others 
backwards ; some taper to a point, whilst others again are 
broad and very much rounded. Complete boxes are 
now fitted up by the cutlers, of excellent quality and sur- 
prisingly cheap. 
Nerpizs.—These are very useful and should be firmly 
fixed in handles as recommended in Chapter II. It is con- 
venient to have them of various lengths and thicknesses. If 
curved by heating and bending to any required shape they 
may be re-hardened by putting them whilst hot into cold 
water. Dr. Carpenter also makes edged instruments by 
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