Abstract: The medical instrument disclosed includes a pair of jaws which are clamped to an end of a surgical wire or pin. The jaws are pressed together, not by the usual Jacobs' chuck arrangement, but by the operation of a cam lever. The lever is mounted in the hand-grip of the instrument. This arrangement makes it possible for the wire or pin to be gripped with a large force, yet to be gripped delicately and precisely so that damage to the surrounding tissue is kept to a minimum. The instrument is T-shaped as to its general shape, and the cam lever operates the jaws by means of a collet action by which a jaw member is axially moved within the hollow stem of the T. The inside end of the stem and a portion of the outer end of the jaw member forming a pair of opposed camming surfaces.