Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times

Cutting instruments--The scalpel handle--Typical form rectangular, with blunt dissector--Round--Octagonal--Mounting the blade--Varieties of blade--Classification--Straight blade...

Specilla or probe-like instruments--Definition of specillum-- κοπάριον--μήλη--ὑπάλειπτρον--Materials--Bronze--Silver--Gold--Tin-- Wood--Bristle--Flower-stalk--Specillum as sound...

The earliest classical writer on medical subjects is Hippocrates, who was born in 460 B. C. and who practised in Athens and other parts of Greece. The 'Hippocratic Collection' i...

The surgical instruments we meet with are, as a rule, of bronze. Not that the Greeks and Romans did not make many of their instruments of iron and steel, but the iron has mainly...

The surgical knife had, as a rule, the blade of steel and the handle of bronze. We find specimens all of steel or all of bronze but these are exceptional forms; and hence it hap...

This is a very comprehensive class. The original specillum was no doubt a simple sound. Varro thus defines the specillum: 'Quo oculos inunguimus quibus specimus specillum est. G...

The removal of the hair from the face for cosmetic purposes is a custom which has come down to us from prehistoric times, and seems to have been very prevalent among all primiti...

The extraction of blood by means of cups has been practised from remote antiquity. The Hindoo Vedas mention it, and it is interesting to note that one of the methods was to appl...

The cautery was employed to an almost incredible extent in ancient times, and surgeons expended much ingenuity in devising different forms of this instrument. A considerable num...

The raspatory or rugine consists of a blade of varying shape fixed at right angles to the shaft, and it is operated by pulling instead of by being driven forwards by striking or...

'When urine is not passed on account of excessive dilatation of the bladder so that it cannot contract, we draw off the urine with a catheter. Therefore an instrument like the R...

Sponges were used for many purposes. Paul (VII. iii) says they should be fresh and still preserve the smell of the sea. They were applied with water, wine, or oxycrate to agglut...

The scalpels of different shapes seem to have been carried in boxes, probably wooden, which opened in two halves like a modern mathematical instrument box. In these the scalpels...