‘And in the double passage you must insert some one of the slender instruments you have at hand, either a double-ended probe (a ‘double olive’ if you prefer to call it so), or if something finer be necessary, even an ear probe.’
In dealing with fistulae Paul (VI. lxxvii) says:
‘We must first examine them with a sound if they be straight, or with a very flexible ‘double olive’ (διπυρήνῳ εὐκαμπεῖ), such as those made of tin or the smallest of those made of bronze, if they be crooked.’
Paul refers to its use as a cautery to destroy the roots of hairs after epilation (VI. xiv):
‘Some, preferring cauterizing to the operation of transplantation, evert the eyelid, and with a cilia forceps dragging out the offending hair, or two or even three hairs, apply a heated double-olive probe or an ear probe, or some such slender instrument, to the place from which the hair or hairs were removed’ (Διαπυρίνον ἢ μηλωτίδα ἤ τι τοιοῦτον λεπτὸν ὄργανον πεπυρωμένον εἴρουσι τῷ τόπῳ ὅθεν ἡ θρὶξ ἢ αἱ τρίχες ἐκομίσθησαν).
Here Briau reads πυρῆνα (an olivary point), but the balance of the evidence of the codices is in favour of διαπυρίνον, and the parallel to the passage quoted from Galen is so complete that I have no hesitation in adopting the reading given above.
I give an example of the dipyrene from my own collection. It is 11·2 cm. long. The shaft is unequally divided by a ringed fluting into two portions; 4·5 cm. and 6·7 cm. long respectively. The shorter portion of the shaft is plain, the longer is grooved longitudinally by eight grooves ([Pl. XI, fig. 1]). In many instances the dipyrene carried an eye in one of its olives. This variety is frequently mentioned. Thus Paul (VI. xxv) says, under treatment of nasal polypus:
‘Taking then a thread moderately thick like a cord, and having tied knots on it at the distance of two or three finger-breadths, we introduce it into the eye of a dipyrene (διπυρήνου τρήματι), and we push the other end of the probe (τὸ ἕτερον πέρας τοῦ διπυρήνου) upwards to the ethmoid openings, withdrawing it by the palate and the mouth, and then pulling with both hands we, as it were, saw the fleshy bodies away by means of the knots.’
[Pl. XI, figs. 5 and 3] show single olive probes for the application of semi-solid medicaments. The former is from the outfit of the oculist of Rheims, in the Museum at St-Germain-en-Laye; the latter, more highly ornamented by spirally twisting the stem, is from my own collection.
Spathomele or Spatula probe.