Bernhard Heine of Würzburg invented his osteotome, or bone saw, in 1830 to solve the problems presented to surgeons by the bone saws available: principally that they were difficult to use in confined spaces and that they frequently damaged the delicate tissues surrounding the nbone and the bone itself. He was successful in this ambition and the Académie de Sciences in Paris awarded him the Monthyon Prize in 1835 for the saw. The Lancet published a very favourable notice of it, commenting that: "every surgeon who has had occasion to employ them [existing saws], must have felt their imperfection. In order to remedy this state of affairs, M. Heine has, after several years of the most patient labour and investigation, succeeded in producing an instrument which, from what we have seen of it, promises to supply in the most perfect manner the defects of other saws, and to become a most useful addition to the apparatus of the operating surgeon." The seven-page piece which describes seven cases, including an operation using the saw "performed by M. Ricord in the presence of MM. Dieffenbach, Phillips, Weber &c.", then concludes that: "We shall now simply remark that we have seen this instrument, and that its manner of action and facility of application fully merit the approbation which it has received in France as well as in Germany".
However, the saw never achieved great popularity: one possible reason, suggested by Edmonson in Nineteenth Century Surgical Instruments, was its cost. In 1889 Tiemann's offered it at $300, when the comprehensive "Buck's General Operating Set" cost $190. In the 1862 Charrière Catalogue, is is stated that "La Scie de Heine est, comme on le sait, très-compliquée et ne peut être manoevrée qu'avec une certain difficulté". A simpler variant of the saw produced by Charrière is illustrated (p. 128, fig. 326), with the addition of two hand grips on the blade carrier ("Cette addition a été faite pour Gerdy"). More dramatically, Gujot and Spielman suggest that this type of saw was never on general issue. It was found to go too far, too fast.
The present example would seem to be a relatively late one, exhibiting several modifications and improvements over the earlier examples. The saw in the Gustav Weber collection is of simpler design and is dated to circa 1855. It is, however, signed "Herrmann", so it could be that, although they, like Heine, were based in Würzburg, Herrmann could not produce a more sophisticated model. The model illustrated in the Tiemann catalogue of 1889 (p. 105, fig. 1607) would seem to be very similar, varying only in the shape of the ratchet release lever at the base of the handle. Apart from the saw in Connecticut, other examples are known in continental European and American Museums. In the United Kingdom, however, the only example known to us in a public museum is that in the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds, which was sold in these rooms on the 19 August 1993 as lot 234. This instrument, signed "Heine", has a handle to the blade carrier, an adjustable arm with wider travel along the arc, lacks the guards and guard-tensioning device, and would seem to be an earlier example. Neither the Wellcome Collection at the Science Museum nor the Hunterian Collection of the Royal College of Surgeons hold examples.