Hi Roy,
What you have is a package that would have contained glass vials of sterile ligatures used to close incisions in surgery. Woods Ligatures first appeared in our price list in 1905, and were packaged in solution in sealed glass vials to keep them sterile. The vials were then packaged in an outer container. Glass vials of Woods Ligatures are pictured in some of our early price lists packaged 12 to a box. The box was usually depicted as cardboard, so yours is a variant with sturdier outer packaging. For instance, many of our wartime medical products during World War I were packaged that way and it's likely that your tin may be a wartime product. Without any more information or a picture of your tin, it's hard to be more precise.
Hope that proves helpful,
Margaret