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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    Bifurcated Probe. Greek, fxrjkrj biKpovs, x^M* In treating of polypus naris Hippocrates directs us to | take a sponge and tie it into a hard ball, and attach a four ply thread to it. Next to pass the end of this thread by I means of an eyed probe of tin till it is caught at the back of the mouth, and drawing it out of the mouth to place a bifurcated probe under the palate, and using this as a fulcrum pull until the polypus is extracted {Be Morlis, ii. 1243: €7T€LTa xrl^-lv virodels vtto tov yapyape&va avrepeiboiv €\k€Lv cot' av ZgtLpvcrris tov Trcokvnov). In Galen's Lexicon we find Xl^V explained as meaning a notched probe, split like a 151 hoof at the point (p.r\ky]v btKpovv, kcltci to aKpov €KT€Tfxr}[X€vr]v i^pm xn^v)- And again under the heading biKpovv he i gives to olov biKpavov, oirep kcll 8io-)(i8f? ovop.a£ovo-i to be amb koli | brj\ol, 1 what they call cloven and also cleft.' The same word also means the notch of an arrow. In Be Morbis (ii. 245), Hippocrates describes another method of extracting polypus with the same instrument. Taking a piece of stringy gut (xopbrjv) and making a loop on it pass the end through the loop, thus making a second larger one, i. e. a noose. Pass the end of the gut through the nose into the mouth with a tin probe. Pull the loop into the nose and adjust it round the polypus with a notched probe (^77X77 Trj e^reT^e^), and when this is done pull on the gut, using the notched probe as a fulcrum. There must have been one form of bifurcated probe with a rounded end bearing a notch like an arrow. This is the ;only form of cleft probe which it would be safe to use in the back of the throat in the manner described by Hippocrates. [We know, however, of other forms of bifurcated probes. (Celsus describes a bifurcated retractor used for the extrac- tion of weapons buried in the flesh : Saepius itaque ab altera parte quam ex qua venit recipienda est; praecipueque quia fere spiculis cingitur; g 2