On the cure of hydrocele Paul (VI. lxii) says:
‘When the fluid is in the tunica vaginalis we make the incision where the apex of the tunica makes its appearance, and, separating the lips of the incision with a hook, and having dissected off the fascia with the hydrocele specillum and the scalpel (ἐξυμενίσαντες τῷ τε ὑδροκηλικῷ κοπάριω καὶ τῷ σμιλίῳ), we divide it through the middle with a lancet.’
Treating of the excision of varices (VI. lxxxii) he says:
‘Having separated the lips of the wound with hooks, and dissected away the fascia with curved hydrocele specilla, and laid bare the vein and freed it all round’ (ὑδροκηλικοῖς ἐπικαμπέσι κοπαρίοις).
A curved dissector from the find of the oculist Severus, now in the Museum of St-Germain-en-Laye, has a neatly ornamented handle with a small hook at one end, and at the other it curves first backward and then forward to join a small leaf-shaped dissector 3 cm. long and 1 cm. in its greatest breadth ([Pl. XXIII, fig. 2]).
Sharp Hooks.
Greek, ἄγκιστρον, ἀγκυρομήλη; Latin, hamus, hamulus acutus.
Hooks blunt and sharp are frequently mentioned in both Greek and Latin literature, and served the same purposes as we use them for; the blunt for dissecting and raising blood-vessels like the modern aneurism needle, the sharp for seizing and raising small pieces of tissue for excision, and for fixing and retracting the edges of wounds. We are fortunate also in possessing many fine specimens of both sharp and blunt hooks in museums, &c. In the Naples Museum alone there are upwards of forty examples of hooks. Of pterygium Celsus says:
Tum idem medicus hamulum acutum, paulum mucrone intus recurvato, subiicere extremo ungui debet eumque infigere; atque eam quoque palpebram tradere alteri; ipse, hamulo apprehenso, levare unguem eumque acu traiicere linum trahente (VII. vii).
Aetius also mentions this use of the sharp hook: