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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    I. A (a) Straight blade cutting on one edge, sharp-pointed. 1. Ordinary scalpel. 2. Scalpel with tip turned back. 3. Bellied scalpel. 4. Scolopomachaerion. Ordinary Scalpel. The ordinary scalpel had apparently a straight, sharp- pointed blade. The word which Galen, Aetius, and Paulus Aegineta use to denote scalpel is o-jutA^. Latin authors use scalpellus, the diminutive of scalper. From the etymology of these terms we can learn nothing as to the shape of the blade; they are merely general terms denoting a cutting blade of any kind—chisel, graving tool, knife, &c. The word Hippocrates uses, p.ayaipa or fxaxaipLov, has a more definite meaning. It is from p.ayaipa, the old Lacedaemonian sword, a broad blade cutting on one edge, sharp-pointed, and straight or with the tip turned slightly backwards. Thus, even in Hippocratic times the scalpel was apparently much of the same shape as it is now. Good examples of the ordinary scalpel may be seen in PL V, figs. 1 and 2 from the British Museum. They are all of steel. A variety with the point turned back at the tip is seen in one of the scalpels in the scalpel box from the Acropolis (PL IV). A more bellied form is seen in PL V, fig. 5, which is from the Naples Museum, and is all of bronze, handle and blade. At the Scientific Congress held at Naples in 1845 Vulpes showed this specimen, and described it as the lithotomy knife invented by Meges and mentioned by Celsus (VII. xx vi). Later I shall discuss in detail the instrument of Meges, but I believe the instrument shown by Vulpes is only an ordinary scalpel with a somewhat bellied shape. Hippocrates refers to a bellied scalpel in a well-known passage on empyema (ii. 258): *Oko>s (tol f) efo§os tov irvovs evpvs rf ra\ivuv h€i jxera^v t&v itkevp&v (TTr]6oekbtL nayaipLhi to ttp&tov bipp.a.