Splints were used by the Greeks for fractured limbs; they were called νάρθηκας. Cutting for the stone is spoken of in the Ὅρκος, which is attributed to Hippocrates. Celsus describes lithotrity, or crushing the stone by the instrument invented by Ammonios the λιθοτόμος, _i.e._ lithotomist. Asclepiades practised tracheotomy. Many surgical instruments have been discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii. There is a speculum vaginæ with two branches and a travelling yoke for them driven by a screw, and a speculum ani opening by pressure on the handles; there is a forceps of curious construction for removing pieces of bone from the surface of the brain in cases of fracture of the skull. Mr. Cockayne says:[540]— “It has been specially considered by Prof. Benedetto Vulpes [1847], who thinks it may also have been intended to take up an artery. The Greeks, he observes, as appears by an inscription dug up near Athens, were able to tie an artery in order to stop hæmorrhage, and words implying so much are found in a treatise of Archigenes (A.D. 100), existing in MS. in the Laurentian library at Florence, ‘_the vessels carrying_ (blood) _towards the incision must be tied or sewed up_.’ Near the end of the sixteenth century a French surgeon was the first to recover the ligature of the artery, and the instrument he used was very similar to the forceps in the Museum at Naples.” A curious pair of forceps has also been found, without a parallel among modern surgical instruments; the blades have a half turn, and the grip is toothed and spoon-shaped when closed. By construction it is suited for introduction into some internal cavity, and for holding firm and fast some excrescence there. Professor Vulpes finds it well calculated for dealing with the excrescences which grow upon the Schneiderian membrane covering the nasal bones, or such as come on the periphery of the anus, or the orifice of the female urethra; especially such as having a large base cannot be tied.[541] There is further an instrument for tapping the dropsical, described by Celsus[542] and Paulus Ægineta. It was somewhat altered in the middle of the seventeenth century by Petit. An instrument suited to carry off the dropsical humours by a little at a time on successive days, as Celsus and Paulus Ægineta recommended, has also been dug up. Rust and hard earth, which cannot safely be removed, have blocked up the canal of the relic, and rendered conclusions less certain.[543]