SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 



53 



and plain. It had a blade of bronze firm enough to support the piece 

 of bone being operated on, and to catch the angle of the chisel if it 

 chanced to slip. Vidus Vidius gives a picture of it (Fig. 3). 



FORCEPS. 



Curiously there is no actual mention of the dissecting forceps by 

 Galen in his book on Practical Anatomy. Of the manipulations which 

 nowadays we perform in dissection by means of a dissecting forceps, 

 Galen does many with a small sharp hook. At the same time, forceps, 

 of the dissecting forceps type, are so frequently found and are so fre- 

 quently mentioned in surgical works (and in none more so than in 

 Galen's), that I cannot doubt the forceps 

 was used in anatomical dissection. There 

 are two varieties of this type of forceps 

 the untoothed form (r/DixoXa/ifo) or epila- 

 tion forceps, and the myza (p.v^a), the 

 toothed vulsella or tumour forceps (Fig. 11, 

 Plate III.). There are numerous forceps of 

 both types in the Naples Museum of various 

 breadths and lengths, some with sliding 

 catches, most without. I was particularly 

 struck with the inordinate length of some 

 of the Pompeian specimens in the Naples 

 Museum, nearly 9 inches long. They had probably been used for 

 operations on the uterus, as described by Celsus, Soranus and others. 



HOOKS, BLUNT AND SHARP. 



Galen makes frequent use of the hook in dissecting. He fre- 

 quently uses it where we would use the forceps. 



Numerous sharp hooks from Pompeii are to be seen in the 

 Naples Museum. I have one which has a sharp hook at one end and a 

 blunt dissector at the other (Fig. 12, Plate III.). The blunt hook is fre- 

 quently mentioned in surgery, and also by Galen in dissection. Most 

 existing specimens are of the same shape as the sharp hooks with the 



Fig. 3. Representations by Vidus 

 Vidius (fifteenth century) of the 

 ancient meningo-phalax. 



