The phlebotome appears to have been a convenient instrument for all sorts of operations besides phlebotomy, especially for the opening of abscesses and the puncture of cavities containing fluid, and for fine dissecting work. Paulus Aegineta mentions its application for the excision of fistula lachrymalis (VI. xxii), the removal of warts (VI. lxxxvii), slitting the prepuce in phimosis (VI. lv), incising the tunica vaginalis in excision of hydrocele sac (VI. lxii), opening abscesses (VI. xxvii), dissection of sebaceous cysts (VI. xiv). Galen (xiv. 787) mentions its use in dissecting open an imperforate vagina. Celsus has no special word for phlebotome. He always refers to it by the general term scalpellus. Theodorus Priscianus, whose Latin takes curious forms, gives us a transliteration of the Greek term: Convenit interea prae omnibus etiam his flebotomum adhibere, convenit etiam eos ventris purgatione iuvari (_Euporiston_, xxi. 66). Hippocrates in the famous passage on the surgical treatment of empyema (ii. 258) says: 'Incise the skin between the ribs with a bellied scalpel, then let a phlebotome (ὀξυβελεῖ) which has been wound round with a rag, leaving the breadth of the thumb nail at the point, be pushed in.' Ὀξυβελής literally means sharp-pointed. The term occurs in the _Iliad_, e. g. applied to an arrow (iv. 126), but Galen in his Lexicon expressly states that Hippocrates by it means the phlebotome. In his treatment of empyema Paulus Aegineta uses not the phlebotome but a sharp curved bistoury; however, in opening the abdomen for ascites it is the phlebotome he recommends: 'We take a curved bistoury or a phlebotome and, having with the point of the instrument dissected the skin that lies over the peritoneum, we divide the peritoneum a little higher up than the first incision, and insert a tube of bronze.' All these various applications of the phlebotome are consistent with the supposition that the phlebotome was the same as that figured in the catalogues of the present day. Heister says: Spectant huc primo loco ea quae Tab. 1 sub litt. A & B (Pl. VII, figs. 6, 7) exhibentur, _scalpellum_ nempe minus et maius; vulgus _lancettas_ eadem nominant. Serviunt eadem, praesertim minora, venis incidendis, quare phlebotoma Graecis vocantur; sed et abscessibus aperiendis, imprimis maiora; ideoque Gallis etiam _lancettes a l'absces_ appellari consueverunt. A bronze blade of this shape is shown in Pl. VII, fig. 3. It was found near Rome.