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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    Bone and Ivory. Numbers of bone ligulae were found in a Eoman hospital lately excavated at Baden. In the Naples Museum there are two ointment spoons with carved bone handles. Needles such as Hippocrates and Celsus speak of for stitching bandages to fix them were very frequently made of bone and ivory. Knife handles of bone and ivory are common. A carved ivory medicament box with sliding lid will be fully described later. Scribonius Largus describes knives of bone and ivory for preparing plants for pharmaceutical purposes (Compositiones, lxxxiii). An ivory pestle was found with a surgeon's outfit in Cologne. Stone, Medicaments were prepared on stone slabs, and the great majority of oculists' seals were of stone. Execution and Ornamentation. The execution of the instruments is, as a rule, all that could be desired, and the weight and thickness are no more than is consistent with the requisite strength. Hippocrates points out the necessity for this :—- Tdb' opyava ndvra evrjpr] irpos ttjv \peCav vndp^iv bet ra>8e /xeye0et, kclI /3ap€t, kcu X^-nror-qri. ' All instruments ought to be well suited for the purpose in hand as regards their size, weight, and delicacy' (i. 58). The ornamentation is simple and effective. In the round instruments like the probes it consists usually of raised circular ornamentation, with or without a secondary orna- mentation on the raised ringing. In others there are longitudinal or spiral grooves running along the instru- ment. In some cases the bronze is decorated with an inlay of silver damascening. This is rare in the instruments from Pompeii, though there are two probes with a spiral inlay in the Naples Museum. The majority of the instru- ments treated in this way have been found in the western MILNE c