IS 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



thread round the handle (Fig. 1). Very often at the top of the 

 handle there are two holes through which to pass the thread, thus pre- 

 venting it from slipping off (Fig. 2). In most of the instruments the 



steel has entirely disappeared, except the 

 part let into the bronze. Still a consider- 

 able number of blades survive. The other 

 end of the handle ends in a leaf-shaped blade 

 of bronze, which Celsus calls the manubrio- 

 lus, and which was largely used for blunt 

 dissection. The various forms of blade used 

 by ancient surgeons comprise practically 



Fig. 2. Diagrams to show different methods 

 of fixing blades. 



every form of knife used by surgeons at the 

 present day. A marble votive tablet de- 

 picting a box of scalpels discovered in the 

 temple of ^sculapius on the Acropolis at 

 Athens shows several forms, and probably 

 indicates the varieties in most common use 

 ( pl *te II). The scalpels, it will be noted, 

 lie head and tail in a box of the same general 

 .ipprarance as one of our boxes for mathematical instruments, and all 

 rxcrpt one have the typical leaf-shaped termination to the handle. 

 The exception is one which ends in a curved hook. This was used 



Fig. 1. Two views of a bronze 

 scalpel handle of typical 

 shape, showing dissecting 

 manubriolus at one end and 

 slot with remains of steel 

 blade at the other. It be- 

 longed to an oculist named 

 Solemnis of the third century 



culture, etc., du Pay, 1864-5). 



