SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 51 



extant. It was a probe of about seven inches long, with an oar- 

 shaped spatula at one end, and an olivary enlargement at the other. 

 Its main use was pharmaceutical for mixing and spreading medica- 

 ments. It was also used by sculptors for modelling. The olive bulb 

 is large, averaging nearly two-eighths of an inch in diameter and over 

 half an inch long. The specimen shown in Fig. 6, Plate III., is a 

 typical representative. It was, as will be seen from its size, too large 

 an instrument to be used for searching ordinary wounds, but was 

 used for large wounds and as a uterine sound. It is one of the 

 commonest instruments to be seen in museums. 



2. The ear probe, mentioned in the last passage from Galen and 

 in innumerable other places, is the most frequently-named instrument 

 we have. It consisted of a narrow scoop at one end and a plain 

 point at the other (Fig. 8, Plate III.). Its use in all sorts of manipula- 

 tions is described. Galen, in one passage, says : " If a bean, stone, 

 etc., fall into the ear, remove it with the small narrow scoop of the 

 ear probe (/UK/DW a-reva KvaOia-Kca /A^AoTynSi) ". This suffices to fix the 

 shape of one end of it. In his dictionary he shows that the other end 

 was plain without olivary enlargement, for in explaining the word 

 a.Trvpoo-iJ.rj\r) (probe without olivary enlargement) used by Hippocrates, 

 Galen says that this means the ear probe. The innumerable uses to 

 which an instrument of this handy shape could be put can easily be 

 imagined, and it was an instrument of universal use in surgery from 

 removing a calculus in the urethra to searching sinuses. In ear work 

 the scoop was used in removing foreign bodies, the other end to instil 

 medicaments into the ear. A ball of wool, soaked in oil or whatever 

 was to be applied, was. placed round the middle of the probe and the 

 oil allowed to run down the point and drop into the ear. 



3. The amphismele (d//,</>i9, at both ends, /^'A/ry, probe), otherwise 

 named the dipyrene (St's, double, -rrvprjv, olive kernel), was a probe 

 with an olivary enlargement at each end (Fig. 7, Plate III.). It is 

 very frequently mentioned by Galen. Thus in dissection of the brain 

 he says : " Put in from both sides one of the small instruments, a 

 double-ended probe (d^io-//.^'^) or double olive (SiTrvp^V^), if you 



