Knives were often held in the mouth and sutures ... Of the approximately 30,000 amputations performed in the Civil War there was a 26.3-percent mortality rate. In the 1870 Franco-Prussian War ...

On a trip ashore in a Basque port a 'messman' from HMS Brilliant was approached by one of the destitute spanish republican soldiers with a plea for a cigarette for which he he gave this sheath knife.