Again in the operation for the radical cure of hernia he says:
Fuerunt etiam qui omentum forfice praeciderent: quod in parvulo non est necessarium; si maius est, potest profusionem sanguinis facere, siquidem omentum quoque venis quibusdam etiam maioribus illigatum est. Neque vero, si discisso ventre id prolapsum forfice praeciditur, quum et emortuum sit et aliter tutius avelli non possit, inde huc exemplum transferendum est (VII. xxi):
‘There have been others who cut away the omentum with scissors, which is unnecessary if the portion is small; and if very great it may occasion a profuse haemorrhage, since the omentum is connected with some of even the largest veins. But this objection cannot be applied in cases where, the belly being cut open, the prolapsed omentum is removed with shears, since it may be both gangrenous and unable to be removed in any other way with safety.’
We have also two references in Paulus Aegineta. He says some of the moderns effect a cure of warty excrescences on the penis by a pair of shears (ψαλίδι, VI. lviii), and dealing with relaxation of the scrotum he says that Antyllus, having first transfixed the superfluous skin with three or four ligatures, cut off what was external to them with a pair of sharp-pointed shears or a scalpel (ψαλίδι ἐπάκμῳ ἢ σμίλῃ), and having secured the parts with sutures he effected healing with the treatment for recent wounds.
Shears are very common objects in museums. Some are of bronze and some are of steel. Judging from the relative numbers in which they have been preserved it would seem that the steel shears far outnumbered the bronze. In [Pl. X, fig. 5] is shown a bronze pair from the Naples Museum, found in Pompeii.
CHAPTER IV
PROBES
Greek, μήλη, κοπάριον, ὑπάλειπτρον, ὑπαλειπτρίς; Latin, specillum.