My apologies for omitting the relevant link below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pricking
I included it as the URL for this post, but also uploaded the image above, thinking both would show up in the post.
I guess the upload overwrote (overrode?) the URL. I'm still learning Lemmy.
Some of the needles were found to have hollow handles with retractable points, yep, but not all as far as the article suggests. Invariably some needles would have drawn blood, otherwise the "tests" would have been even less credible to begin with.
As credible as such tests could appear even back then, lol.