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

  • Milne, John Stewart, 1871-
Date:
1907
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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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    Aetius (III. v) also describes removal of urethral calculus in this way. The following passage from Paul (VI. xl) on venesection shows that in cases where the band of Antyllus could not be applied, the back of the ear scoop was pressed on the proximal end of the vein, in order to obstruct the flow of blood and cause it to discharge by the opening made with the phlebotome: ' Tie a ligature round the neck, and when the frontal vein is properly filled divide it with the point of a phlebotome or a scalpel. In the same way we open the external jugulars for chronic ophthalmia, producing a discharge of blood with the scoop of a probe' (KvaOivKov ^A^s). Adams evidently misunderstood this passage. He trans- lates it 'with the concave part of a scalpel', which is meaningless. This use of the scoop will also explain an otherwise obscure passage in Hippocrates (iii. 678). He says : ' In letting blood avoid pressing hard with the specillum (kol orav aQaiprjs to alfxa rfj inqXr] /xrj Kapra -nd^v ws pLTj (pXdais itpo(jyivr\Tai) lest injury be caused.' Of the use of the ear scoop as a curette we have several instances. Thus Aetius (II. iii. 81) recommends it for curetting the interior of a chalazion, and again (II. iii. 84), cf. Galen, Comp. Med. vii. 2. The scoop was also used for applying medicaments, especially to the eye. Liquid applications were poured from it, semi-solid were applied with the back of it (averso specillo). This use of the back of the scoop has often been misunderstood. The natural translation of the phrase averso specillo is 'with the probe turned away', i. e. the back of the probe. Scul- tetus, however (Tab. VIII. vii), considers that it refers to a spatula probe, and says it means the probe turned end for end. Other translators adopt this meaning. DenefTe (Les Oculistes Gallo Romains, p. 108), e.g., says: II faut entendre par averso specillo la partie de la spatule MILMIC -p