_The Ambè._ We have seen that in using the scamnum (Fig. 19) for the reduction of dislocation inwards of the thigh, Paulus Ægineta, (also Hippocrates, from whom Paul is copying), recommends us to fix a piece of board along the inside of the thigh and leg, to assist in levering the head of the bone into position. A board applied in this way was also used in reducing the dislocations of the shoulder, either by levering the board over the back of a chair or the lower half of a door, or by using it in conjunction with some specially constructed machine, such as that of Fabrus, with which we shall meet presently. A board especially prepared for this purpose had a rounded enlargement on its extremity, to assist in pushing the head of the humerus outwards. The name of this enlargement (ἄμβη) gradually became transferred to the whole instrument. The “ambè” was well known in England till well into the last century. The time of its disappearance in England may be fixed by a passage in Adams’ edition of Hippocrates (vol. ii, p. 575) where he says: “Of late years the ambè has fallen completely into disuse, and none of the various modifications of it are to be seen except in the cabinets of the curious.” (This was in 1849.) Scultetus shows us an ambè mounted in a specially prepared upright for use in the surgery (Fig. 19). The ambè is thus described by Hippocrates: “We must get a piece of wood five, or at least four, inches broad, two inches in thickness, or thinner, and two cubits in length, or a little less, and its extremity should be rounded, and made very narrow and very slender there, and it should have a slightly projecting edge (ἄμβη) on its round extremity—not on the part that is to meet the chest, but the head of the humerus. “A piece of soft shawl should be glued to the end of the piece of wood so as to give the least pain on pressure. “Having pushed the end of this piece of wood as far in as possible, between the ribs and the head of the humerus, the whole arm is to be stretched along this piece of wood, and is to be bound round at the arm, the forearm, and the wrist, so that it may be particularly well secured, but great pains should be taken that this piece of wood should be introduced as far into the armpit as possible, and that it is carried past the head of the humerus. “Then a crossbeam is to be securely fixed between two pillars, and afterwards the arm, with the piece of wood attached to it, is to be brought over this crossbeam so that the arm may be on one side of it and the body on the other and then the arm with the piece of wood is to be forced down. The crossbeam is to be fixed so high that the rest of the body is raised on tiptoe. “This is by far the most powerful method of effecting the reduction of the shoulder for thus one operates with the lever on the most approved principles.” Celsus (Bk. VII, ch. xv) describes the ambè thus: