Tonillotome for performing tonsillectomies. Steel rod with a ring at the end. Pulling back on the handle draws a guillotine-style blade across the ring to excise the tonsil. A skewer can also be extended across the ring to hold the tonsil in place during the procedure and extract it with the instrument. Charles Truax and Company was founded in Chicago in 1887 as a partnership between Charles Truax, Frank C. Greene, and Charles W. Bassett. Sometime after 1893 the name was changed to Truax, Greene & Company, and the business was dissolved in 1920.