Now for suturing tissues, and more especially tissues of such toughness and thickness as the abdominal parietes, a round needle is absolutely of no use. A surgical needle not only requires to have cutting edges, as our three-cornered needles have, but these edges need to be in good condition to work well. Three-cornered surgical needles were in use from very early times. They are fully described in the Vedas of the Hindoos (Wise, _Hindoo System of Medicine_, p. 171). A few three-cornered needles of Roman origin have been found, although they are rare. Those which exist are of bronze. Probably the majority were of steel, and of these none have survived. I give a photograph of a three-cornered needle from my collection (Pl. XVII, fig. 4). It is imperfect at the point. It measures 7·2 cm. in length, and the sides are each 2 mm. in breadth. It is important to emphasize the fact that only needles with cutting edges are to be looked on as surgical, because it is not unusual to find needles, which are round and of large calibre, described as surgical, although they are quite unfitted for surgical work. Such is the one figured by Vulpes (op. cit.). Needles of this kind are sometimes found, as this one was, among surgical instruments. But they are not surgical needles in the sense that they are intended for suturing tissues. They are for fixing bandages. I shall describe them in the next section. _Round Needles and Bodkins._ Hippocrates tells us that bandages for fixing dressings and splints on a fractured limb ought to be finished off by stitching with a thread (iii. 55), and Celsus repeats the advice: Hieme saepius fascia circumire debet: aestate quoties necesse est. Tum extrema pars eius inferioribus acu assuenda est; nam nodus vulnus laedit, nisi tamen longe est (V. xxvi). The round sewing needle was therefore part of the recognized outfit of the surgeon, and numbers have been found associated with surgical instruments. Apart from this association with other instruments it is quite impossible to distinguish them from domestic needles. The same may be said of bodkins, as these too occur in surgical finds, and are also quite indistinguishable from the domestic articles for embroidering. Pl. XVII, fig. 2 shows a bronze needle from Roman London. A similar one from Pompeii, now in the Naples Museum, is given by Vulpes as a surgical needle, owing to the fact that it was found along with surgical instruments; but it is evident that it is only a needle for sewing bandages, &c. Other types of needles and bodkins are found in bronze, but many also are of bone and ivory. Even the latter are quite serviceable, and in spite of their being comparatively thick will stitch compact cloth easily. An ivory needle from Roman London is shown in Pl. XVII, fig. 5. _Eyed Probes._