‘And, transfixing the pterygium with a hook (καὶ ἀγκίστρῳ καταπείροντες περὶ τὰ μέσα τὸ πτερύγιον), we gently make traction on it’ (Tet. II. iii. 60).
Paul also says:
‘Seizing the pterygium with a hook with a small curve, (ἀγκίστρῳ μικροκαμπεῖ ἀναδειξάμενοι) we stretch it’ (VI. xviii).
The method of excision of the tonsil described by Celsus, Aetius, and Paul is to bring the tonsil into view by dragging on it with a sharp hook and then amputating it. Thus Paul says:
‘Wherefore seating the person in the light of the sun, and, directing him to open his mouth, while one assistant holds his head and another presses down the tongue to the lower jaw with a tongue depressor we take a hook (ἄγκιστρον) and transfix the tonsil with it and draw it outwards as much as we can without drawing the capsule along with it, and then we cut it out by the root with the tonsil knife suited to that hand’ (VI. xxx).
In contraction of the vulva, Paul says:
‘Having transfixed the connecting body, whether flesh or membrane, with hooks, we stretch it and divide it with the fistula knife’ (VI. lxxii).
Similarly Celsus (VII. xxviii) says:
At si caro increvit, necessaria est recta linea patefacere; tum ab ora, vel vulsella vel hamo apprehensa, tamquam habenulam excidere.
In dissection, many of the manipulations which we perform with the dissecting forceps were performed by the ancients with sharp hooks. [Pl. XXIV, figs. 1-5] represent specimens from various sources; some simple, others combined with another implement.