Ancient Medical Instruments: An Overview and Case Study
- PDF / 1,381,585 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 392.58 x 619.02 pts Page_size
- 13 Downloads / 181 Views
An interesting account of the early use of sutures is that described in SUSHRUTA SAMHITA where large ants are used to bite the wound closed and their bodies are then pinched off, leaving only the pincers remaining. This practice is still said to be used today in Africa. The Transition from Lithics to Iron The Code of Hammurabi (Sentences 215-219) mentions the use of a bronze lancet. There are a significant number of Es':,pdan and Mediterranean archaeological finds of copper or bronze (?) knives with an unusual re-entrant shape, but these have not been found in an identifiably surgical context: the literature suggests their use to be either for leather scraping or for mummification. The large majority of identifiable surgical knives (,-_:'stly Roman) are found to be bimetallic, i.e., iron blades with copper-based alloy handles. To our knowledge, there are no published metallographic studies of ancient surgical implements. We were able to find only two related papers in the literature; one on the chemical analysis of a small group of Egyptian instruments which proved to be made from copper or lowtin bronze [10], and a secl'd on the analysis of an extensive group of Roman surgical and medical instruments purchased by the British Museum [11]. Of 39 objects, 11 were identified as being made from low Zn brass (8.8 - 17 weight % Zn), the balance being mostly low Sn bronzes (up to 14.8 weight % Sn). Because early surgical tools are hard to recognize in terms of specific function, unless they are found in context they are difficult to identify. A rare exception is the collection of Roman surgical implements found in Pompeii. In order to demonstrate the level of technology typical of that time, metallographic study has been performed on an object identified as a Roman surgical "olive" probe similar to those found in Pompeii. This object is typical of the general class: the probe is approximately 10.7 cm in length, and about 2 immin diameter over its central section. It has an olivary enlarged head (Fig. 1.a) at one end (the main use end?); and a set of ridges at the other end, capped by a screwdriver-like edge (Fig. 1.b). Upon initial visual inspection, it was noted that the corrosion product present at the head of the probe was very differc:., in appearance from that present over the major shaft area and at the opposite end (i.e., the corro.,ion product present at the surface of the head appeared to be a powdery blue-green color, while the remaining areas were dull brown in color); it is likely that the outer corrosion layer had fallen off the probe tip region revealing the underlying corrosion layer (Fig. L1a). A small sample was removed from the very tip of the olivary end, and was prepared for metallographic examination. Examination using light optical microscopy revealed a non-concentric layered appearance, visible at lower magnification (Fig. 2.a), and an equiaxed microstructure with heavy mechanical twinning, visible at higher magnification (Fig. 2.b). Corrosion product present near the surface appeared to penetrate
Data Loading...
