“The probe, ‘specillum,’ μήλη, is reputed by Cicero to have been invented by the Arcadian Apollo, who also was the first to bind up a wound. Seven varieties are figured in the work of Professor Vulpes in one plate, with ends obtuse, spoon-shaped, flat and oval, flat and square, flat and divided. The catheter of the ancients is figured by the same writer. It was furnished with a bit of wood to be drawn out by a thread, to prevent the obstructive effects of capillary attraction, and to fetch the urine after it when withdrawn. It is of bronze, and elastic catheters seem to be of modern invention.” There are, or were in 1847, eighty-nine specimens of pincers in the Naples Museum. Hooks, hamuli, cauterising instruments, a spatula, a silver lancet, a small spoon for examining a small quantity of blood after venesection. There are cupping vessels of a somewhat spherical shape, from which air was exhausted by burning a little tow. A fleam for bleeding horses just like that used at the present time, a bent lever of steel for raising the bones of the head in cases of depressed fracture. Professor Vulpes gives figures of eight steel or iron knives used for various surgical purposes, and of a small plate to be used as an actual cautery. [Illustration: ANCIENT SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS. Fig. 1. The Saw used by Carpenters. Fig. 2. A Small Saw. Fig. 3. The Modiolus, _or_ Ancient Trephine. Fig. 4. The Terebra, _or_ Trepan, called Abaptiston. Fig. 5. The Augur used by Carpenters. Fig. 6. The Terebra, _or_ Trepan, which is turned round by a thong bound tight about its middle. Fig. 7. The Augur, _or_ Trepan, which is turned round by a bow. Fig. 8. A Terebra, _or_ Trepan, which is turned round by a thong on a cross-beam. Fig. 9. A Terebra, _or_ Trepan, which has a ball in its upper end, by which it is turned round. Fig. 10. A Terebra, _or_ Trepan, which is turned round by a cross piece of wood, or handle, on its upper end. (From Adams’ _Hippocrates_, vol. i.) [_Face p._ 246.] CHAPTER VI. AMULETS AND CHARMS IN MEDICINE. Universality of the Amulet.—Scarabs.—Beads.—Savage Amulets.—Gnostic and Christian Amulets.—Herbs and Animals as Charms.—Knots.—Precious Stones.—Signatures.—Numbers.—Saliva.—Talismans.—Scripts.—Characts. —Sacred Names.—Stolen Goods. In the ancient world, as with savages, the whole art of medicine was in many cases the art of preparing and applying amulets and charms.