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Recording the blood pressure is one of the steps in physical examination which is impossible for the blind physician with any of the usual types of sphygmomanometer. By a simple modification of the Tycos spring sphygmomanometer the procedure becomes easy after a little practice, with a range of error not exceeding 10 mm. of mercury.
All that is necessary to make it possible for a blind physician to read the gage is to cement a plastic fiber bristle at right angles to the outer third of the needle in such fashion that the tip of the bristle projects about one sixteenth of an inch (0.16 cm.) through a narrow slit cut through the plastic crystal covering the dial. The slit is circular in course and extends throughout the range of the scale. Small braille dots are attached to the crystal at points corresponding to the numbers of the scale ; larger