Exceedingly rare and unique medical cane made of hard rubber with removable metal assembly that holds all the original fourteen cork-stopped medicine vials. The vials have their original label and medicine content. By removing the lower tube of the cane and attaching a bell and earpiece from the handle, a seventeen-inch stethoscope is assembled. The brass presentation ring just below the handle is inscribed: From Dr. Parsons to Dr. Hallock Aug. 1882. Dr. Robert Parsons is listed in the 1880 census of Salida, Colorado. Dr. Richard Sanford Hallock, also in the 1880 Salida census, was born in Orange County, New York, in 1829 and died in Salida on March 25, 1891. Dr. Hallock moved from Oakfield, Iowa, to Colorado in 1879. He served late in the Civil War as an Assistant Surgeon with the 67th U.S. Infantry of Colored Troops. The cane was clearly used by Dr. Hallock, as the brass tip is worn from walking. In the middle photo the cane is assembled for walking, with the brass tip at the top of the photo and the hard rubber handle with inscribed brass ring at the bottom. In the left photo the cane is taken apart, showing all original medication vials it still contains. The lower tube with the brass tip is on the bottom and the middle tube and handle taken apart is at the top of the photo. In the right photo the middle tube and the earpiece and bell components of the handle are screwed together to form a monaural stethoscope. 

​

​Stethoscopes were often carried in a medical bag when the doctor was making a house call on a patient. But such medical bags called attention to the physician and the possibility that he may be carrying drugs, most especially opiates that were commonly used as medication in the 19th century. Medical canes were a method for carrying drugs in a form that would not reveal the identity of the physician. American medical canes are very scarce, and the example shown above is the only known medical cane that incorporates a stethoscope in the body of the cane.