Round Needles and Bodkins.
Hippocrates tells us that bandages for fixing dressings and splints on a fractured limb ought to be finished off by stitching with a thread (iii. 55), and Celsus repeats the advice:
Hieme saepius fascia circumire debet: aestate quoties necesse est. Tum extrema pars eius inferioribus acu assuenda est; nam nodus vulnus laedit, nisi tamen longe est (V. xxvi).
The round sewing needle was therefore part of the recognized outfit of the surgeon, and numbers have been found associated with surgical instruments. Apart from this association with other instruments it is quite impossible to distinguish them from domestic needles. The same may be said of bodkins, as these too occur in surgical finds, and are also quite indistinguishable from the domestic articles for embroidering. [Pl. XVII, fig. 2] shows a bronze needle from Roman London. A similar one from Pompeii, now in the Naples Museum, is given by Vulpes as a surgical needle, owing to the fact that it was found along with surgical instruments; but it is evident that it is only a needle for sewing bandages, &c.
Other types of needles and bodkins are found in bronze, but many also are of bone and ivory. Even the latter are quite serviceable, and in spite of their being comparatively thick will stitch compact cloth easily. An ivory needle from Roman London is shown in [Pl. XVII, fig. 5].
Eyed Probes.
We have frequent references to eyed probes, and we also possess a considerable number of different types. In dealing with the dipyrene I quoted a passage to show that it sometimes carried an eye in one of its olives. Hippocrates refers to an eyed probe of tin. In treating of fistula he directs us to take a rod of tin having one end pierced with an eye (μήλην κασσιτερίνην ἐπ' ἄκρου τετρημένην), and having put one end of a twisted piece of lint through the eye put the probe into the fistula, get the end of the specillum, bend it and hold the thread with the finger and withdraw the ends. Paul quotes this passage (VI. lxxvii), but alters the wording slightly:
‘Hippocrates directs us to pass a thread consisting of five pieces through the fistula by means of an eyed probe or a dipyrene’ (διὰ τετρημένου κοπαρίου ἢ διπυρήνου).
Again in polypus naris (ii. 243) Hippocrates directs us to cut a sponge to the shape of a ball and tie the ball round with thread, and make it hard and of such a size as to fill the nose. To the sponge tie a thread of four pieces, each a cubit long, and make one thread of them. Put the end through a fine tin rod having an eye at the end. Push the rod bent at an acute angle into the mouth, and catch the end of the thread under the palate and pull it through, propping it with another hoof-like probe, and extract the polypus. [Pl. XVII, fig. 1] shows an eyed probe from the Baden Hospital. Its shape is exactly the same as a lead probe figured by Paré for the insertion of the apolinose.
An example of a scoop at one end and an eyed probe at the other was found at Augst, and is now in the Museum at Basle (Brunner, loc. cit., Taf. I, fig. 14). It is 16 cm. long, of which the spoon, slightly defective at its tip, occupies 3 cm. About 2 cm. from its tip, which is fine, there is an elongated eye, 5 mm. in length.