Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times Part 28

'The emery having detergent powers cleanses teeth.'

Galen makes the Naxian stone a variety of ostracites which was apparently marble formed of sh.e.l.ls. One of the marble ointment tablets had, we saw, been used as a whetstone, but the whetstones for which Naxos was famous must, if not emery, have been some variety of shale or slate. It seems contrasted to some extent with the 'oilstone', i. e. whetstone which required oil. This was a clay slate (see Pliny, _H. N._ x.x.xvi. 47).

There are several whetstones from Stabiae in the Naples Museum which are cla.s.sed among surgical implements. Whetstones are common objects in the finds from any Roman settlement, but they are not ground to regular shapes as our whetstones are. They usually consist of fine sandy schistaceous shale.

CHAPTER XI

eTUI, ETC.

_Portable Outfit._

After describing the larger apparatus necessary for the equipment of the surgery, Hippocrates mentions a portable equipment for use on journeys:

'Have also another apparatus ready to hand for journeys, simply prepared, and handy too by method of arrangement, for one cannot overhaul everything' (i. 72).

The component parts of this portable outfit so far known to us are as follows:

The scalpels of different shapes seem to have been carried in boxes, probably wooden, which opened in two halves like a modern mathematical instrument box. In these the scalpels lay head and tail, separated from each other by small fixed part.i.tions. A box of scalpels of this kind is represented in a marble votive tablet which was found on the Acropolis on the site of the Temple of Aesculapius. A similar box with different instruments is seen in a donarium in the Capitoline Museum. The probes and forceps were carried in cylindrical cases like those in which the scribes carried their pens. A good many of these have come down to us. From the fact that in the grave of the surgeon of Paris there were found two buckles, it is probable that there had been buried along with the instruments a case of leather or some such perishable material, which had been used to contain instruments, but which had disappeared when the grave was opened. There have also been found boxes of various shapes for containing medicaments, cylindrical boxes for drugs in sticks, boxes divided into little part.i.tions for drugs in semi-solid form, and other boxes for powders.

_Portable Probe Cases._

The spatulae, sounds, hooks, and forceps were carried about in a cylindrical case of bronze. Several of these etui have been found containing instruments. They average 18 cm. in length and 15 cm. in diameter. The lid lifts off. One in the museum at Lausanne was found in a Roman conduit at Bosseaz and contained a cyathiscomele of the usual type (Bonstetten, _Recueil des Antiqq. Suisses_, pl. xii, figs. 11 and 12). A case exactly similar to the above containing a cyathiscomele and a toothed vulsellum was found in the Rhine Valley. Another case of the same kind was found at Bregenz. It contained a long ligula, a spathomele, a cyathiscomele, and a double olivary probe.

In the Naples Museum are four of these cases, three of which were found in Pompeii and one in Herculaneum. One of these is a plain cylindrical case 18 cm. long and 15 in diameter. It contained instruments (Pl. LIII, fig.

1). Another case is ornamented with raised rings. It was found in the House of the Physician, and contained six specilla of different kinds and a vulsellum. A third is of similar size and shape, but it is considerably destroyed by oxidation, and it is adherent to a rectangular slab of black stone which had been used for mixing medicaments. Through the cracks in the case there may be seen the probes which it contains. The case from Herculaneum is a plain cylindrical case 19 cm. long and 2 cm. in diameter.

Lately, several other cases have been found in Italy which are placed in the Naples Museum. One in a fragmentary condition showing its contents is seen in Pl. LIII, fig. 2.

In the Musee de Cinquantenaire, Brussels, there is one of these cases which was brought by M. Ravenstein from Italy. It contained three instruments all of silver, a cyathiscomele, a grooved director, and a plain double-ended stylet. It is 18 cm. long and 15 in diameter.

A fragment of a similar case was found in the Roman Hospital at Baden.

_Box for Scalpels._

Among the ruins of the Temple of Aesculapius on the top of the Acropolis at Athens there was found a marble donarium or votive tablet, which represents a box of scalpels flanked by a pair of bleeding-cups.

The box reminds one of a modern box for mathematical instruments, being divided into a top and bottom half, each of which contains instruments separated from each other by small blocks. There are three instruments in each half and they are arranged head and tail. Five are scalpels of different shapes; the sixth has a curved cutting instrument at one end and at the other a lithotomy scoop. The size of each half of the box is 9 18 cm. outside measurement, and 7 165 cm. inside. See Pl. IV.

A similar box is seen in a marble tablet in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.

Here the instruments are different.

_Ointment Boxes._

Among the instruments of the surgeon of Paris was a box which Deneffe regards as a portable unguentarium. Unlike the medicament boxes it is not divided into compartments and the lid lifts off instead of sliding in grooves. It is 83 mm. long, 45 wide, and 35 deep. A line running round the middle of the box divides it into two equal parts and shows the division between cover and box. On the top is a little ring attached by a little pyramidal eminence 15 cm. high by which the cover was lifted off. Several circular ointment boxes, some containing medicaments, are to be seen in the Naples Museum.

_Collyrium Boxes._

A large number of cylindrical boxes containing sticks of medicament have been found in Pompeii. In the find of the oculist of Rheims there were five cylindrical boxes, all of the same size and shape. They were 14 cm.

long and 12 mm. in diameter. The covers are 35 mm. high. In them were the remains of sticks of collyria which they had contained. The term collyrium includes in cla.s.sical writings not only liquid but also solid applications. Collyria were often moulded into sticks for portability, and liquefied with water, wine, white of egg, &c., as required. These boxes which have come down to us are exactly similar to the case shown in Pl.

LIII, but they are on a smaller scale.

_Slabs for preparation of Ointment._

In the Roman provinces small rectangular slabs are occasionally found which have evidently been used for rubbing medicaments upon. Some have also their edges worn by the sharpening of scalpels. As they are rarely of the stone of the country in which they are found they have evidently been manufactured in Italy and carried by their owners on their travels. They are rather rare. There are two in the museum at Naples. One was discovered in Herculaneum which is 13 cm. long and 8 cm. broad. A cylindrical instrument case is adherent to it. The edges are bevelled on its upper surface. One of similar size and shape, but made of white marble, was found in the grave of the surgeon of Paris. It shows by the hollowing out of one of its edges that it has been used for sharpening scalpels.

There are two in the Archaeological Museum at Namur. They are of black marble. They measure 11 cm. by 75, but a bevelling of 75 cm. all round reduced the top surface to 95 cm. by 6. One of these was found along with surgical instruments in a second-century cemetery at Wancennes near Namur.

There is one of a dark-coloured stone in the museum at Chesters, Northumberland. A small specimen of my own is shown in Pl. LII, fig. 4.

Similar small slabs, engraved with oculists' names and the names of drugs to serve as seals, have been found in considerable numbers, but these oculists' seals have already an extensive literature of their own.

_Boxes for Drugs._

A considerable number of medicament boxes have been found. They are usually of bronze, rectangular and of a convenient size and weight for carrying in the pocket. In size they average 12 cm. in length by 75 in breadth and 2 in height. As a rule they are divided into four or more small divisions by part.i.tions. Those reported are as follows:

There are two in the Royal Antiquarian Museum at Berlin. Of these, one was found in the Rhenish country between Neuss and Xanten. It is of bronze.

Inlaid with silver on its sliding cover is the figure of Aesculapius standing in a small temple.

The second, of similar construction and appearance, was brought by Friedlander from Naples and presented by him to the museum.

A third, in the museum at Mainz, was found in the Rhine while dredging near the town. It is of bronze, 10 cm. long, 8 wide, 2 in height. It weighs 123 grammes. The sliding lid is decorated with the snake of Aesculapius, twisted round the stem of a laurel tree. The tree and the body of the snake are formed by inlaying copper in the bronze. The outline of the head of the snake and the scales of the body are of silver. On withdrawing the lid the interior is seen to be divided into four compartments each shut by a little hinged lid, which may be lifted by means of a little ring. Two of these compartments are 6 cm. by 3, the two others are 4 cm. by 3.

In the Naples Museum there are three of these boxes. They are all of bronze and divided into compartments. One is divided into five compartments. It is 18 cm. long by 8 wide and 2 deep. Of the compartments three are 8 cm. by 2 and two are 5 cm. by 3. There is at the upper end of the box a small handle by which to carry it. Another box is 13 cm. by 75.

On removing the lid it is seen to be divided into six compartments, two of which have hinged lids of their own, like the Mainz box. These compartments still contain medicaments (Pl. LIV).

The third of the Naples boxes is of an unusual type. It is 125 cm. by 75, but it is 3 cm. high and is divided into an upper and a lower division each 15 cm. deep. Each division has a sliding lid of its own.

The upper division is separated into four compartments, two of which are 7 cm. by 2 and two are 4 cm. by 2. The lower stage occupies the whole area of the box.

A medicament box of a unique character was in use in a chapel as a reliquary till its original use was pointed out. It is of ivory, and carved on its sliding lid is a representation of Aesculapius and his daughter Hygeia. Aesculapius carries in his left hand a staff, round which is coiled a snake, and in his right a pine cone. Hygeia carries a snake in her right hand, and in her left a bowl from which she feeds the snake. The execution of the design shows the box to belong to the third century. The box is divided into eleven compartments. It is now in the Castle Valeria at Sitten.

APPENDIX

I. INVENTORY OF CHIEF INSTRUMENTS IN VARIOUS MUSEUMS

ENGLISH MUSEUMS.