The cautery was employed to an almost incredible extent in ancient times, and surgeons expended much ingenuity in devising different forms of this instrument. A considerable number of these shapes are definitely mentioned. The cautery is nearly always spoken of as made of iron. Bronze becomes too soft to act well as a cautery, so that even the earliest references to the cautery in the authentic Hippocratic writings refer to cauteries as 'the irons' (σιδήρια). It is true, of course, that in special cases bronze was used--and Priscianus recommends a cautery of gold or silver for stopping haemorrhage from the throat (_Logicus_, xxii)--but iron was the usual thing, and in spite of the enormous numbers of cauteries which must have existed only a very few have come down to us, as the iron has perished. The cautery was employed for almost every possible purpose, as a 'counter-irritant', as a haemostatic, as a bloodless knife, as a means of destroying tumours, &c. The following passage is interesting as showing its application in two of these capacities (Aet. IV. iv. 45): 'I put the patient lying on her back, then I incise the sound part of the breast outside the cancer and burn the incision with cauteries until the eschar produced stops the flow of blood. By and by I incise again and dissect the depth of the breast and again burn the incision; and often repeat the same, both cutting and cauterizing to stop the haemorrhage, for then the danger of a rush of bleeding is avoided, and after the amputation is completed I again burn all the parts to desiccation. The first cauterization is for the sake of stopping the haemorrhage, the second for eradicating all traces of the disease.' _Cautery Knife._ Greek, ξυράφιον. Paul on several occasions mentions the use of the cautery knife. In radical cure of hydrocele, as an alternative to the excision of the sac by the knife, he explains how it may be done with the cautery, and says, 'Afterwards, when the whole is laid bare, we stretch it with hooks and remove it with a sword-shaped cautery (μαχαιρωτῷ καυτῆρι)' (VI. lxii). Galen, speaking of cancer, says, 'Some use heated razor blades (ξυραφίοις), at once cutting and burning' (xiv. 786). _Trident Cautery._ For forming issues over the spleen Paul (VI. xlviii) says: 'Some pick up the skin with hooks and push through it a long cautery, and repeat this three times so that there are six eschars. Marcellus, however, by using the instrument called a trident or trident-shaped cautery (τριαίνῃ ἢ τριαινοειδεῖ καυτηρίῳ), formed six eschars at one application.' Vulpes describes an instrument of bronze which he considers to be a trident-shaped cautery. It was found along side an instrument which I take to be a phlebotome. If it is for the purpose described above by Paul it is unusual in being of bronze, and it must have lost a good part of its teeth. _Olivary Cautery._ Greek, πυρηνοειδὲς καυτήριον.