Galen (xii. 865) says teeth may be extracted with the stylus (γραφείῳ ἀνάλαβε) or with the finger.
Hippocrates (i. 46) thus describes the method of extraction of the secundines:
‘Place the patient on the obstetric chair and, leaving the cord uncut, place the child on two bladders filled with water and puncture each of the bladders with a stylus (γραφίῳ) so that the water may slowly flow away.’
The writing stylus, then, from the fact of its being at hand and of suitable shape was occasionally, perhaps often, used as a surgical instrument.
I give a figure of a stylus in silver, beautifully oxidized, which was found at York while making excavations there in constructing the railway ([Pl. XVII, fig. 3]).
[Pl. XVII, fig. 6] shows an instrument which is figured by Vulpes (op. cit.) as a specillum. Personally, I think its highly ornamented form shows that it is rather a domestic article, but, as no information is available as to the surroundings among which it was found, we can only say that its shape fits it equally well either for writing or minor surgical manipulations.
Grooved Director.
Although we have no actual description of a grooved director, we have many manipulations described in which such an instrument would be used nowadays. For example, in describing the treatment of fistulae Celsus says:
In has demisso specillo ad ultimum eius caput incidi cutis debet (VII. iv).
‘A director being inserted into them down to their termination the skin ought to be incised.’