Antique medicine


Toiletry items (1)

 

 

Bronze cutlery consisting of a scraper (length 184 mm) (2), an ear spoon (length 156 mm) (3) and a small nail accessory (4). (*)


1. The scraper could be a double-edged razor for scraping off body hair on the arms and legs.

 


2. Very common were the spoon probes whose end was formed into a mostly long oval "spoon". Many such "spoons" had a strikingly sharp edge and could be used to scrape out fistulas or uteri. A. "Krug" refers to a subform of these spoon probes, the so-called "ear spoon": thin sticks with a slightly angled round spoon at one end, which initially served to clean the outer ear canal, but could certainly be used by the doctor for cleaning wounds, for probing bullet wounds, probing the urinary tract or, in the case of blood lettings, controlling the exiting blood stream. If the spoon rim was sharp, these probes could also be used to scratch out fistulas or hemorrhoids. The spoon probe shown here probably belongs to this ear spoon type.

 


3. The nail accessory is much easier to work than the model shown above. It consists only of a retractable between two protection leaves tip.
The devices presented here are from central England, a southern suburb of the city of Birmingham, where they were excavated near a former Roman military camp (other camps extended to the northwest Luguvallium / Carlisle, Mancunium / Manchester, etc.)

 

 


(*) E. Riha, Rom. Toilettgerät u. medicine. Instruments a. Augst u. Kaieraugst Forsch.i.Augst Bd.6, 1987