50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



Hippocrates uses the word in describing certain cauteries, and Galen, 

 in a note on this passage in Hippocrates, says that the word is applied 

 to instruments long in proportion to their breadth. This knife, then, 

 had a long, sharp-pointed blade, with both edges cutting. 



In Book ix. he describes the dissection of the brain of an ox. 

 These ox brains, he says, are sold in many cities with the skull re- 

 moved, but if you wish to remove it yourself you may do it with a 

 butcher's knife (/ta^ai/ja). These butchers' knives are of the general 

 form known as "culter" or "cultellus" by the Romans. Fig. .">, 

 Plate III., shows a typical butcher's knife of steel from a camp at 

 Sandy in Bedfordshire. They very often had a " heel," and were, 

 therefore, unsuited for purely surgical work. The Latin surgeons are 

 careful not to use the word "culter" or "cultellus" in describing 

 surgical knives, but always use the word " scalpellus ". 



PROBES. 



In one single passage, in describing the dissection of the veins 

 about the Torcular Herophili, Galen names three varieties of the 

 surgical probe. 



1. The spathomele. 



2. Ear probes. 



3. Probes with an olivary enlargement at either end. 



In another passage he mentions the plain probe without enlarge- 

 ment at either end. These probes, he says, may be of bronze, iron 

 or silver ; but he prefers them made of some dense wood, like box- 

 wood, so that when used as directors to cut on they do not chip the 

 scalpel. There should be several sizes of each. Numerous probes of 

 all these varieties mentioned by Galen are known, many in bronze 

 but a few in silver, and also a few in steel. I shall now give a short 

 description of each in turn. 



1. .Spathomele or spatula probe. This derives its name from 

 o-ndOr), an oar blade ; and p-^r/, the general word for probe. 



It is mentioned so frequently in surgical works that we have no 

 difficulty in recognising it in the numerous specimens which are 



