The difficulty in incising the capsule of the prostate with the ordinary sharp-pointed knife, and the possibility of hemorrhage from inserting the knife too deeply into the tissue, led me to devise the instrument shown in the illustration.
The object was to have the "belly" or cutting edge of the knife on the end instead of on the side. It will be found valuable in dividing the capsule for the suprapubic operation. Being flat it is easily guided, and being pointless it reduces to the minimum the danger of puncturing any blood-vessel.
I find that one incision over each lobe is sufficient to allow me to get the line of cleavage, and I have had no hemorrhage or profuse bleeding since I began its use; I think that the bleeding has been reduced to the oozing, which is of minor importance and need cause the operator no uneasiness. 2038 Locust