Proderit et spongeae particulam praesectam apte forfice ad amplitudinem et patorem narium figuratam inicere paulo pressius ex aceto per se (xlvi).
Soranus (xli) says haemorrhage from the uterus may be stopped with a sponge tent:
Ὁπότε τρυφερὸν καὶ καθαρὸν σπογγάριον ἐπιμήκες ὡσαύτως διάβροχον ὡς ἐσωτάτω παρεντιθέναι προσήκει.
Sutures.
Celsus (V. xxvi) says sutures should be of soft thread not overtwisted that they may be the more easy on the part: ‘Ex acia molli non nimis torta quo mitius corpori insidat’. They were made of flax. The apolinose described by Hippocrates (iii. 132) is directed to be made of crude flax (ὠμολίνου), the strands of which were stronger than those of dressed lint. This also is what Paul used for the deligation of arteries.
Galen alludes to sutures of wool, and Paulus Aegineta in the operation for ectropion says:
‘Afterwards we unite the divided parts with a needle carrying a woollen thread, being satisfied with two sutures.’
We have no mention of catgut being used for this purpose, though that substance was early known to the Greeks. The Homeric harp was strung with catgut. In fact χορδή, the term for harp-string, simply means intestines. Paul used a woman’s hair in a needle to transplant hairs in trichiasis (VI. xiii). Horsehair was used to raise a pterygium in Paul VI. xviii, but it is not mentioned as being used for suturing wounds.
Serres Fines.
Greek, ἀγκτήρ; Latin, fibula.