Hitherto I have spoken of the probe as if it were a single instrument; but, as a matter of fact, the ends of the shaft are usually fashioned to serve different purposes. Thus at one end there will be a probe, at the other a spatula, a spoon, or a hook. Some of these combinations have names of their own, and others are so frequently met with that they too seem to have been constant types. It may simplify matters if we anticipate a little and remark that while the uses of the probes in actual surgery were the same as at the present day, in the minor surgery, consisting of the application of medicaments and toilet preparations, they were used in a slightly different manner. Semi-solids, like eyebrow pigment and eye ointments, were applied on olivary-pointed probes. Liquids, like ear and eye drops, were usually instilled by squeezing a ball of wool dipped in the liquid and placed round the middle of a probe, and letting it run off the point. Thus a common form of toilet instruments consists of a probe-like instrument with an olive at one end and a sharp stylet at the other. Ligulae with scoops were used to withdraw drops of fluid essences, &c. from unguentaria. Some of these ligulae run up to a foot and a half in length. The specilla which remain to us are mostly made of bronze. A few are overlaid with gold and silver, and a few are solid gold or solid silver. We read, however, of specilla of lead, tin, copper, and wood, and of the use of a boar's bristle or a stalk of garlic for searching fistulae. I shall now proceed to classify and discuss these different varieties, premising, however, that no hard and fast line can be drawn between different types. They shade off into each other by imperceptible gradations, so that whatever system of classification we adopt bastard forms are sure to occur. _Double Simple Probe._ Greek, ἀπυρηνομήλη, ἀπυρομήλη; Latin, _specillum_. The simplest form of specillum is a plain rod of metal rounded off at either end. These are not infrequently met with. I figure one from my collection. Its length is 14.5 cm., its diameter 2 mm. At either end it tapers rapidly off to a blunt point. At a distance of 3 cm. from one end is a raised ring (Pl. X, fig. 4). A similar probe in silver may be seen in the Musée de Cinquantenaire, Brussels. It was found with other probes in an étui. Pl. X, Fig. 3 shows a rather longer specimen from the Naples Museum. A variety with non-tapered ends is seen in Pl. X, fig. 1. It is also from the Naples Museum. Pl. XI, fig. 4 shows a probe, from my own collection, which carries the snake of Aesculapius at one end. One with a double snake (caduceus form) was found in the Roman Hospital at Baden (Pl. XI, fig. 2). _Specilla with two olivary ends._ Greek, διπύρηνος μήλη, ἀμφίσμιλος. A slender sound with slight olivary enlargement at either end is very frequently mentioned under the name διπύρηνος μήλη by Galen. He also calls it ἀμφίσμιλος. Thus he says: