'Seizing the clitoris with a broad jawed vulsellum in the left hand, put it on the stretch, and with the right cut it off close to the teeth of the instrument.' Paul gives pretty much the same instructions (VI. lxx): Μυδίῳ κατασχόντες τὸ περιττὸν τῆς νύμφης ἐκτέμνομεν σμίλῃ. 'Seizing the hypertrophied portion of the clitoris with a vulsellum, excise it with a scalpel.' Aetius (xvi. 107) also says: Ὥσπερ οὖν ἐπὶ τῆς νύμφης προείρηται σχηματίζειν χρὴ τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ μυδίῳ ἀποτείνειν τὴν ὑπεροχὴν καὶ τῷ πολυπικῷ σπαθίῳ ἐκβάσεως ὅλον τὸ περιττὸν ἀφαιρεῖν. Cf. also Paul, VI. lxxi and again Aetius (iv. ii. 3). Again Aetius says: 'If there is a large and malignant excrescence in the angle of the orbit, the enlarged part must be seized with vulsella (μυδίῳ) and cut off' (vi. 74). In the corresponding passage in Paul (VI. xvii) another name for the vulsellum is used, viz. σαρκολάβος:--'granuloma of the inner canthus we seize with vulsella and excise' (σαρκολάβῳ). In treating of epulis he again uses the same term: 'Epulis we seize with vulsella and excise' (σαρκολάβῳ). In Moschion (II. xxx), in the chapter 'De Haemorrhoidibus quae in matrice nascuntur', we find a Latin transliteration of the two terms μύδιον and σαρκολάβος side by side: Myzo vel sarcolabo haemorrhoides teneantur ita ut in aliquantum extensas scalpello prius radices earum scarifes, et in aliquantum artifex sarcolabo convertat. Here, in all probability, Soranus, from whom Moschion is copying, has simply used μύδιον, and the added 'vel sarcolabo' is simply a gloss, for the terms μύδιον and σαρκολάβος are synonymous. However this part of Soranus is lost. Extant specimens of the vulsellum are common. A simple variety is formed by folding a plate of bronze on itself, as in Pl. XXVIII, fig. 1, which shows a specimen in the British Museum. The jaws are finely toothed. More usually the myzon is formed by sawing a plate of bronze partly along its midline as in Pl. XXIX, fig. 2, which is taken from the find of the oculist Severus. An interesting variation is seen in the specimen shown in Pl. XXVIII, fig. 3 which is from my own collection. The line of junction of the jaws instead of being in the median plane is sloping. The object of this arrangement is not quite clear. A small variety of the vulsellum is referred to by Aetius: 'Epulis we seize with a small vulsellum and excise with a small scalpel' (ἡ ἐπουλὶς μυδιοσκέλλῳ ἀποταθεῖσα ἐκτεμνέσθω σμιλαρίῳ στενῷ, vii. 24, 25). We have one or two of these instruments. They remind one of fixation forceps. I illustrate one in Pl. XXIX, fig. 3. It is from the Mainz Museum. There are four similar ones in the Frankfort Historical Museum. The specimen shown in Pl. XXVIII, fig. 2, from the Naples Museum, is interesting as being stamped with the name of the maker, Acachcolus.