A medical bag is a portable bag

Bag

- Types of flexible containers :* Antistatic bag, used for shipping electronic components* Bag-In-Box* Bin bag, garbage bag, or trash bag* Book bag* Bulk bag, a name for a flexible intermediate bulk container* Burn bag* Diplomatic bag* Duffel bag...

 used by a doctor

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 or other medical professional to transport medical supplies and medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

.

Traditionally, the medical bag was made of leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

, opened on the top with a split-handle design. During the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, physician's medical saddle bags were used. Modern medical bags are made of various materials and come in various designs that can include many pocket

Pocket

A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets may also be attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items...

s, pouch

Pouch

Pouch may refer to:* A small bag such as a pocket, teabag, money pouch, sporran, etc* Cadaver pouch, body bag * Diplomatic pouch* Electric heating pouch, medical apparatus, electric heating device for curative treatment...

es, and zipper

Zipper

A zipper is a commonly used device for temporarily joining two edges of fabric...

ed or hook-and-loop openings.

American Indian medicine men and shamans use a medicine bag

Medicine bag

A medicine bag is a traditional North American Indian container for various items of supernatural power. While anyone may have one, usually it would be the medicine man, or shaman, of a tribe who would carry one...

. A battle bag

Battle Bag

The battle bag, or Mann bag, is a lightweight load carrying system designed to allow the combat infantryman to carry enough ammunition and ancillaries such as medical supplies, spare batteries, and radio equipment. There are a multitude of different suppliers for these, with the British Army having...

 is used in the military.

Popular culture

The original Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....

 comic book character carried a medical bag (as a Lt. Nurse) in which she carried her costume and accessories.

In 1956, Lynn Pressman Raymond

Lynn Pressman Raymond

Lynn Pressman Raymond was an American business executive who joined her husband Jack Pressman in developing and growing the Pressman Toy Corporation, and was an innovator in creating and licensing toys based on hit television programs and professional athletes in her two decades as president of...

 (of the Pressman Toy Corporation

Pressman Toy Corporation

Pressman Toy Corporation is a toy manufacturer based in New York City which was founded in 1922 by Jack Pressman. It currently focuses on family games and licensed products. Its slogan is "Games people play...

) created the Doctor Bag to help children feel more comfortable with visits to the doctor. Seeing the anxiety of her children on visits to the doctor due to ill health or for vaccinations, she created the Doctor Bag in 1956—which included a stethoscope

Stethoscope

The stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal body. It is often used to listen to lung and heart sounds. It is also used to listen to intestines and blood flow in arteries and veins...

, syringe

Syringe

A syringe is a simple pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside a cylindrical tube , allowing the syringe to take in and expel a liquid or gas through an orifice at the open end of the tube...

, and other pretend medical supplies—to help kids deal with their fears.

In 1955, the MV Joyita

MV Joyita

MV Joyita was a merchant vessel from which 25 passengers and crew mysteriously disappeared in the South Pacific in 1955.-Construction:The 69-foot wooden ship was built in 1931 as a luxury yacht by the Wilmington Boat Works in Los Angeles for movie director Roland West...

, a charter boat, was found partially submerged after being missing for 5 weeks. Among the items found onboard was a doctor's bag containing a stethoscope, a scalpel, and four lengths of blood-stained bandages.

In the television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies

The Beverly Hillbillies

The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....

(1962–71), Granny Clampett is a backwoods doctor who has a medical bag.

Doctor Ross

Doctor Ross

Doctor Ross , aka Doctor Ross, the harmonica boss, was an American blues singer, guitarist, harmonica player and drummer — a one-man band— who was born Charles Isaiah Ross, in Tunica, Mississippi....

 (Charles Isaiah Ross, 1925–1993) was an American blues musician nicknamed "Doctor" because of his habit of carrying his harmonicas in a black bag that resembled a doctor's bag.

In the 1984 film Crimes of Passion, the "Reverend" Peter Shayne (played by Anthony Perkins) carries a doctor's bag full of sex toys.

Books about doctor's bags include What's in a Doctor's Bag? by Neil B. Shulman

Neil B. Shulman

Neil Barnett Shulman is an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at Emory University. He has conducted and published clinical research on hypertension and is the co-founder of the International Society of Hypertension in Blacks. He is the author of many books promoting medical literacy for...

 and Sibley Fleming

Sibley Fleming

Sibley Fleming is an American journalist and writer of children's literature and adult non-fiction. She was named Outstanding Writer of 2000 by the National League of American Pen Women and the Georgia Writer of the Year by Georgia Writers.-Biography:...

, and My Doctor's Bag (2002, ISBN 978-0789485205) by Anne Millard.

Some video games, such as the Battlefield series (2002–present) and Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas is a first person action role-playing video game in the Fallout series developed by Obsidian Entertainment, and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is based in a post-apocalyptic environment in and around Las Vegas, Nevada...

(2010), use medical bags to increase the player's health

Health (gaming)

Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....

.

The ITV British police drama Heartbeat 2006 episode "Dead Men Do Tell Tales" is about a nurse, Carol Cassidy (played by Lisa Kay), who rushes off to treat an emergency, but absent-mindedly leaves her medical bag in her car which contains dangerous drugs; Carol has to fight for her career when local boys steal the bag.

External links

• Doctor Bag Project - What's in the bag?, a glimpse into a doctor's bag from a typical late 1880s rural doctor, Indiana Medical History Museum
  Indiana Medical History Museum
  The Indiana Medical History Museum is an Indiana monument to the beginning of psychiatric medical research. It is located on the grounds of what was formerly Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane...
  
  
• Series 13 - Medical bags, cases and other containers (with or without contents), Medical History Museum, University of Melbourne
  University of Melbourne
  The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...