‘Make a triangular mark over the centre of it and apply to the mark nail-shaped (ἡλωτούς) cauteries heated in the fire, and afterwards burn the triangle with gamma-shaped cauteries, and afterwards level the triangle with cauteries shaped like bricks (πλινθωτοῖς) or lentils (φακωτοῖς).’
Cauteries of nail shape are also referred to by Hippocrates in the treatment of recurrent dislocation of the shoulder:
‘Raise up the skin. Burn with cauteries which are not thick nor much rounded but of an elongated shape (προμήκη). For thus they pass more readily through’ (iii. 151).
Galen has a long note in explanation of this term:
Φαλακρὰ κέκληκε τὰ περιφέρειαν ἔχοντα κατὰ τὸ πέρας οἷον οἱ κατὰ τὰς μασχάλας ἔχουσι πυρίνας ἤτοι τὰ διαπύρινα καλούμενα καὶ αἱ σπαθομήλαι, προμήκη δὲ τὰ τούτοις ἐναντίως διακείμενα προσηγόρευσεν, ὧν οὐκ ἔστι περιφερὲς τὸ πέρας ἀλλ' ὀξύτεραν περ' ἐμπλήρωμα παραπλήσιόν πως τοῖς εἰς τὰς παρακεντήσεις ἐπιτηδείοις ὀργάνοις.
‘He (Hippocrates) calls φαλακρά (globose) those having a ball at the tip, such as those for the axilla, which have olivary points and also those which are called double olivary probes and spathomeles. But those which are the reverse he calls προμήκη, i. e. those which have the end not globose but rather sharp, exactly like the instruments for paracentesis’ (xviii. 376).
In the Naples Museum there are three tile-shaped cauteries, one of iron and two of bronze. One of the latter is shown in [Pl. XL, fig. 1].
Wedge-shaped Cautery.
Hippocrates (iii. 223) says that the oblique veins of the head are to be burned with wedge-shaped cauteries (σφηνίσκοισι σιδηρίοισι).
Needle Cautery.