unite the lips of the incision with three or four sutures' (VII. viii). The use of the scalpel for the plastic operation, therefore, was to make an incision in the eyelid in such a way as to enclose a leaf-shaped area and to dissect off the skin surrounded by the incision. Albucasis figures it as a small but fairly broad blade with a rounded cutting tip (Pl. IX, fig. 3). It must have been a small scalpel to suit the operation described, and to make the dissection indicated it must have been sharp-pointed. It is contrasted to some extent with the pterygotome by Paul, and we saw that the pterygotome was narrow and sharp-pointed. These various references to its use are in agreement with the supposition that it was of the shape figured by Albucasis. I have considered it here because the question of its shape is rather hypothetical, and therefore it seemed best to consider it close by its confrere the pterygotome. We may recall the fact that in the grave of the third-century oculist Severus several tiny scalpel handles were found. These were probably handles for these two ophthalmic scalpels, but unfortunately only a trace of the steel remains. Védrènes, in his edition of Celsus, figures an instrument from Pompeii of a shape which we are accustomed to associate with eye work (Pl. IX, fig. 6). _Uvula Knife._ Greek, σταφυλοτόμον. This is a special scalpel for throat work, of whose shape we know nothing. It is mentioned by Paul as a special scalpel for excision of the uvula: 'Wherefore, having seated the patient in the sunlight and directed him to gape wide, we seize with the uvula forceps or a common tenaculum upon the elongated part and drag it downwards and excise it with the instrument called the uvula knife (σταφυλοτόμῳ), or the scalpel used for the plastic operation on the eyelid' (VI. xxxi). The knife figured by Albucasis as used for the purpose is a small curved bistoury (Pl. IX, fig. 4). We have no other means of determining its shape. I have placed it here because it was mentioned along with the 'scalpel for the operation on the eyelid'. _Blade curved on the flat.--Tonsil Knife._ Greek, ἀγκυλοτόμον (ἀγκύλη, 'bend of elbow,' _or_ ἀγκύλος, 'crooked'). This instrument is described by Paul (VI. xxx) in the operation for removing the tonsils: 'Wherefore, having seated the patient in the sunlight, and directed him to open his mouth, one assistant holds his head and another presses down the tongue with a tongue depressor. We take a hook and perforate the tonsil with it and drag it outwards as much as we can without dragging the capsule out along with it, and then we cut it off by the root with the tonsillotome (ἀγκυλοτόμον) suited to that hand, for there are two such instruments having opposite curvatures. After the excision of one we may operate on the other in the same way.'