Hegar double ended cervix dilator

Hegar double ended cervix dilator size 23/24mm, in an open plastic wrapper, made by Downs Surgical Ltd. Mitcham, Surrey, England, 1975-1979

Dilators are used to make openings into the body wider. This example is used to widen the cervix, the narrow portion of the uterus. The instrument is named after its developer Alfred Heger (1830-1914), who was one of the first to use dilators which gradually increased in diameter of one millimetre at a time. Colleagues observed their used in his clinic in 1879 and Heger published on them two years later. He focused on obsterics and gyanecology during his career.