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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    &c. from unguentaria. Some of these ligulae run up to a foot and a half in length. The specilla which remain to us are mostly made of bronze. A few are overlaid with gold and silver, and a few are solid gold or solid silver. We read, however, of specilla of lead, tin, copper, and wood, and of the use of a boar's bristle or a stalk of garlic for searching fistulae. I shall now proceed to classify and discuss these different varieties, premising, however, that no hard and fast line can be drawn between different types. They shade off into each other by imperceptible gradations, so that whatever system of classification we adopt bastard forms are sure to occur. Double Simple Probe. Greek, a'nvpr]vofxr]\r]i airvpopLriXr] ; Latin, specillum. The simplest form of specillum is a plain rod of metal rounded off at either end. These are not infrequently met with. I figure one from my collection. Its length is 14-5 cm., its diameter 2 mm. At either end it tapers rapidly off to a blunt point. At a distance of 3 cm. from one end is a raised ring (PL X, fig. 4). A similar probe in silver may be seen in the Musee de Cinquantenaire, Brussels. It was found with other probes in an etui. PI. X, Fig. 3 shows a rather longer specimen from the Naples Museum. A variety with non-tapered ends is seen in PI. X, fig. 1. It is also from the Naples Museum. PI. XI, fig. 4 shows a probe, from my own collection, which carries the snake of Aesculapius at one end. One with a double snake (caduceus form) was found in the Boman Hospital at Baden (PI. XI, fig. 2). Specilla with two olivary ends. Greek, hmuprivos fxi^Kr], apL<})i<r[Ai\os. A slender sound with slight olivary enlargement at either end is very frequently mentioned under the name bnTvprjvos ^77X77 by Galen. He also calls it d/x^tVjutAoj. Thus he says: