Surgical instruments in Greek and Roman times / by John Stewart Milne.

  • Milne, John Stewart, 1871-
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Surgical instruments in Greek and Roman times / by John Stewart Milne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    File. Greek, pwapiov, pCvr], piviov; Latin, lima^ limula. In compound fracture with protrusion of bone Celsus says: ' Should any small piece of bone protrude, if it is blunt it should be reduced to its place. If it is sharp its point should first be cut off if it is long, and if short it should be filed. In either case it should be smoothed with the raspatory.' (Si longius est, praecidendum; si brevius, limandum, et utrumque scalpro laevandum.) The application of the raspatory to smooth the bone after the use of the file shows that it must have been more of the nature of a rasp than a file which was used for bones. Scribonius Largus speaks of a wood file or rasp used in reducing a hart's horn to powder (Comp. cxli): Ad lumbricos satis commode facit et santonica herba, quae non viget, et cornum cervinum limatum lima lignaria. Files were largely used in dental work. All the surgeons state that where a tooth projects above its fellows it should be filed down; Galen says that for this purpose he has invented an olivary pointed file of steel: oihr\pwv ZiroCrjaa piviov Ttvpr)vo€ibis (xiv. 871). Aetius copies Galen's chapter word for word (II. iv. 30). Paul (VI. xxviii) says the file (pivapiov) may be used to remove tartar from teeth. There are several files of steel in the Naples Museum which are classed among the surgical instruments. Many Roman files of steel which have been found in London are now in the Guildhall Museum. Some of these have trans- verse edges like our own files. Other extant specimens have coarse frets on them, like our wood rasps. PI. XLII, fig. 1 shows one in the Guildhall collection, which is of the rasp variety. Forceps for extracting Weapons, Greek, (3€\ov\k6v (sc. opyavov). Paul has a most interesting chapter on the extraction of