Of all the specilla this is one of the most frequently mentioned by name. It consists of a small narrow scoop at one end and a simple probe without olivary enlargement at the other. We shall discuss the scoop first. The following passage from Archigenes describes it (Galen, xii. 652): 'If a bean, stone, &c., fall into the ear remove it with the small narrow scoop of the ear specillum' (κυαθίσκῳ στενῷ μικρῷ μηλωτρίδος). Again Galen (loc. cit.) and Paul (VI. xxiv) say that in cases where foreign bodies cannot be got out of the ear by more simple methods, we must incise behind the ear and remove them by means of the ear scoop. The removal of foreign bodies from the ear by means of this instrument is very frequently referred to and shows that the scoop was small. Celsus says (VI. vii): 'When a person begins to experience a dullness of hearing, which very often happens after long continued headaches, first of all we must examine the ear itself, for there will appear either a scab such as occurs upon ulcers, or a collection of sordes. If there is a scab it ought to be fomented with warm oil or with verdigris in honey, or leek juice or a little nitre in hydromel, and when the scabs have been detached from the part, the ear is to be washed out with tepid water, in order that being spontaneously separated it may be the more easily extracted with the ear specillum (_oriculario specillo_). If there is cerumen and it is soft, it is to be extracted with the same specillum, or if it is hard vinegar with a little water is to be put in, and when it is softened the ear is to be washed out and evacuated in the same way.' In VI. vii he says: Ubi vero vermes orti sunt, protrahendi oriculario specillo sunt. 'Where worms have arisen they are to be extracted with an ear specillum.' Celsus also recommends it for extracting a calculus from the meatus urinarius (VII. xxvi): Eum, si fieri potest, oportet evellere vel oriculario specillo, vel eo ferramento quo in sectione calculus protrahitur. 'It, if possible, is to be extracted with the specillum or the instrument for extracting the calculus in lithotomy.' Aetius (III. v) also describes removal of urethral calculus in this way. The following passage from Paul (VI. xl) on venesection shows that in cases where the band of Antyllus could not be applied, the back of the ear scoop was pressed on the proximal end of the vein, in order to obstruct the flow of blood and cause it to discharge by the opening made with the phlebotome: 'Tie a ligature round the neck, and when the frontal vein is properly filled divide it with the point of a phlebotome or a scalpel. In the same way we open the external jugulars for chronic ophthalmia, producing a discharge of blood with the scoop of a probe' (κυαθίσκου μήλης).