Ear Syringe.
Greek, ὠτεγχύτης, ὠτικὸς κλυστήρ; Latin, oricularius clyster.
The ear syringe is very frequently referred to by both Greek and Latin writers; in fact, Celsus uses the term so often to denote a syringe for a large variety of uses that it is evident that it is almost a general term for any small syringe.
In addition to its use in washing out the ear in cases of foreign bodies, impacted cerumen, &c. he uses it to wash out the foreskin in balanitis, to syringe fistulae, to wash out the bladder through a lithotomy wound, &c.
In cases of foreign bodies in the ear he says:
Sternutamenta quoque admota id commode elidunt, aut oriculario clystere aqua vehementer intus compulsa (VI. vii).
Aetius and Paul tell us it was used to wash out the vagina, and Paul says it might be used to make injections into the bladder. Oribasius says:
‘We use flushing with an ear syringe in abscess of the intercostal space, and in fistulas to expel first the pus with warm water, then to cleanse the cavity with melicrate’ (Collect. viii. 24).
From a consideration of the various uses to which this instrument was put, and from the fact that it is contrasted at times (e. g. in Paul, VI. lix) with syringes formed by adding a bladder to a tube, I am of the opinion that this instrument, like the pyulcus, was a syringe of the form of a metal cylinder with a plunger like the ear syringe of to-day, and used, as the ear syringe was a few years ago, for flushing sinuses and irrigating wounds, and as a handy instrument for all general purposes of the kind. This is borne out by the fact that the ear syringe, described in detail by Albucasis (p. 157), is a cylinder of bronze or silver, wide above and narrowed to a point with a small opening in it and with a well-fitting plunger wrapped with a little cotton at one end. His figure, though quite intelligible, is too conventionalised to give any additional information.
Insufflator for Powder.