VJ PROCEEDINGS OF* THE ANATOMICAL .VXD ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



prefer to call it so, or if something smaller be necessary, even an ear 

 probe". This passage gives the two names for the instrument in 

 juxtaposition. Extant specimens are not uncommon. 



4. The probe named a-irvpofji-ijXr) (Fig. 9, Plate III. ) is a plain rod 

 of metal without olivary enlargement at either end, and was used for 

 searching wounds and also as a director for cutting upon. 



Needles carrying lint thread are mentioned in several places. 

 These needles are very common, and vary from huge bodkins to eyed 

 probes and surgical needles. Three-cornered surgical needles were 

 known to the Hindoos from very ancient times, and were used by the 

 Romans, but actual existing specimens are very rare. I believe there 

 is only one in the Naples Museum, though there are hundreds of 

 round needles classed as implements of surgery. Fig. 10, Plate III., 

 shows a typical specimen in bronze from Rome. 



CHISELS. 



In describing the dissection of the chest in Book viii., Galen, at 

 one stage of the proceedings, describes the division of the rib by two 

 chisels opposed to each other. This manipulation is often described 

 by ancient surgeons in similar circumstances, e.g., in excising a piece 

 of the clavicle one chisel was held below as a sort of anvil, and the 

 other was struck. Galen compares the under one to a butcher's 

 block (eViKOTTos). There are several specimens of the surgical chisel 

 in the Naples Museum. They are much of the same shape as those 

 of the present day. 



MENINGO-PHALAX. 



In describing the division of the rib in the above passage, Galen 

 directs us to place under the rib the instrument known as the meningo- 

 plialax, so as to guard the pleura. The meningo-phalax was an instru- 

 ment used in operations on the brain to prevent the meninges getting 

 injured in the removal of bone in depressed fracture of the skull and 

 similar operations. The description of it given by Celsus is quite full 



