Reconstruction: Medical Needles for couching the Cataract

[Martin Moser]

Hi,

How many specialized medical devices are catalogued for the Romans?

her is a short list cited from Matthäus, Hartmut. Der Arzt in römischer Zeit. Medizinische Instrumente und Arzneien. 1989. pp 16-38:

Scalpel /scalpellus, scalper, culter
Phlebotom / phlebotomum, scalpellus
Scissors / forfex
"Diokles' spoon" / diokleios
Saw / serrula
Trepan / modiolus
Chisel / scalper, scalprum planum
Elevator (for bones, not people :-) ) ) / elevatorium
Rasp / scalper excisorius, lima
Sharp and Blunt Hooks/ hamulus acutus, hamus retusus
Forceps / forceps
Tweezers / vulsella
Cauter / ferrum candens
Needle / acus
Cupping vessel / cucurbitula
Probe / specillum
Catheter / fistula
Speculum / speculum

That should be roughly it. Of course of all of the above mentioned there exist s a number of variations, suited to many different purposes and documented by archaeological finds. The only one that is debatable seems to be the find of the "Diokles' spoon" from Ephesos (displayed in the museum there), whose authenticity is doubted by some. Celsus however devoted a small chapter to it, so we know it did actually exist (De Medicina, Book VII, Ch. 5/3).

cheers,

Martin