Rasping Specillum.
Greek, βλεφαρόξυστον; Latin, specillum asperatum (Celsus).
A special burred specillum, for curetting the granular lids so common as a result of the ophthalmia which is endemic in most Eastern countries, and which was rampant in ancient Greece and Rome, is described by Celsus and also by Paul. Celsus says:
In hoc genere valetudinis quidam crassas durasque palpebras et ficulneo folio, et asperato specillo, et interdum scalpello eradunt, versasque quotidie medicamentis suffricant (VI. vi).
Paul says:
‘But if the granulation be hard and yield to none of these things we must evert the eyelid, and rub it down with pumice stone, or the shell of the cuttlefish, or fig-leaves, or the surgical instrument called blepharoxyston’ (διὰ τοῦ βλεφαροξύστου καλουμένου, III. xxii).
Heister (vol. i. tab. xvi. p. 591) figures the blepharoxyston as a spoon-shaped instrument burred on the convex side. There is in the Orfila Museum, Paris, an instrument of similar form. It consists of a handle with an olivary point at one end, and at the other a plate with transverse ridges. This agrees well enough with what we know of the classical instrument. It was found in Herculaneum. ([Pl. XVI, fig. 1]).
Styli and Styloid Specilla.
Greek, γράφιον, γραφεῖον, γραφίς; Latin, stylus or stilus.
The difficulty of deciding as to whether any particular instrument is a surgical or a domestic article is often well illustrated by styloid instruments. In the British Museum several types of instrument will be found classed among surgical instruments, and a series of exactly similar articles will be found repeated among the styli used for inscribing and erasing characters on wax tablets. As even the writing stylus was occasionally used for surgical manipulations we are justified in looking on all styloid instruments as potentially implements of minor surgery. The claims of any doubtful instrument to be considered as once having been one of a surgeon’s tools must be decided on such grounds as the circumstances of its discovery.