Museum Mystery Monday

I have been trying to get my incoming shelves at the museum all cleared off.  One by one the boxes and bags are opened and spread out on my desk for photographs.  Some items  are rather curious.

Some of the items in the background may help you make a guess.  All this “stuff” came in the same box.   This particular item is from the 1950’s and would not be used today.  In some parts of the country it would have been used more than others.

It was something I have never seen before.  I hope no one out there has used this mystery item, but if you have used it please tell us all about it!  I will add a photo of the reveal later in the day.  Guess away:)

You all were good guessers!

The hard plastic parts were for suction, the little red knife was to cut x’s across the bite marks, also included were an antiseptic and a string.  It is a Cutter Suction Snakebite Kit.

On a side note:  A few weeks ago I was contacted by a writer who was researching deaths by snakebite in Minnesota.  I assured him the there were no snakebite deaths recorded in Hubbard County, at least I have not run across them.  However in the south eastern part of Minnesota there used to be two types of Rattlesnakes, a Timber Rattler and what the early settlers called a Prairie Rattler but was actually a Eastern Massasauga, many children were bitten by the Prairie Rattler because it liked swamps and meadows (hay land where the children would run through barefooted)), it took the better part of a week to die from that bite  and it was very painful. Wheresas if a Timber Rattler bit you, you were most likely a goner in less than a day back in the olden days:)