SURGICAL KNIFE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Surgical knife

... number of cases I think we can simply say that the individual Eugenist means himself, and nobody else. Indeed one Eugenist, Mr. A.H. Huth, actually had a sense of humour, and admitted this. He thinks a great deal of good could be done with a surgical knife, if we would only turn him loose with one. And this may be true. A great deal of good could be done with a loaded revolver, in the hands of a judicious student of human nature. But it is imperative that the Eugenist should ...

— Eugenics and Other Evils • G. K. Chesterton

... forbid," laughed Vaura, "that I should put the surgical knife, as it were, to my heart, and lay bare all its latent workings for the express delectation of five o'clock ...

— A Heart-Song of To-day • Annie Gregg Savigny