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)

    170/316 (page 154)
    from the Pompeian hooks, are still used by veterinary surgeons. Decapiiator. Of transverse presentations, Celsus says : Eemedio est cervix praecisa; ut separatim utraque pars auferatur. Id unco fit, qui, priori similis, in interiore tan- tum parte per totam aciem exacuitur. Turn id agendum est ut ante caput deinde reliqua pars auferatur. 1 The treatment is to divide the neck so that each part may be extracted separately. This is done with a hook which, though similar to the last, is sharpened on its inside only, along its whole border. Then we must endeavour to bring away the head first, and then the rest of the body.' Decapitation has now given way before Caesarean section ; but the decapitator, little altered since the days of Celsus, still finds a place in surgical instrument catalogues. Paul and Aetius both mention division at the neck, but do not describe a special instrument. A ring knife for dismembering the foetus has already been discussed among the cutting instruments; but this seems to be a different variety with a handle, which it is convenient to discuss in proximity to the embryo hook. PI. L, fig. 2 shows a knife on this principle in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Cranioclast. Greek, Triecrrpov, zpifipvoOXaaTris, Okavrris; The cranioclast is mentioned by Hippocrates (ii. 701). l&yj.aavTa rrjv K€(f)a\r]v [xa\aLpC(D ^vpLirKao-aL tva jj,r) dpavarj r<£ 7TL€(TTp(i) KCLL TCt Odria tXKtLV TW 6(TT€OVkK(t). ' Opening the head with a scalpel, break it up with the cranioclast in such a way as not to splinter it into fragments, and remove the bones with a bone forceps.' The nature of the cranioclast is pretty well indicated by this passage, and in Galen's Lexicon we find mio-Tpy defined as r<i> €ixftpvo6kd(TTr} KaAovjmeVw. I give drawings from Albu- casis of a 1 forceps to crush the child's head' (PI. LI, fig. 3).