Surgery

Cupping glass (01)

Two old arab glasses

Already in ancient times one knew suction cups - on several Greek and Roman reliefs the "cucurbiculae" are pictured. There was the intervention in two variants:

- in bloody "wet" cupping the skin was scratched, then placed the suction cup over it to draw blood from the skin wound
- in the bloodless "dry" variant, only a hyperemia under the suction cup was desired. The blood of the body should be "distracted" to this place.

A Roman bronze plate is featured in our collection under the heading "Ancient Medicine". In addition, they were available in horn, in wood and in glass.

While the "Greek-Roman" bell was fixed to the skin by means of a flame, the fore-oriental surgeons preferred to suck the bells with their mouths. For this purpose, the bells had a - below the edge inserting - Saugstutzens.

Several museums (Cairo, Louvre) as well as several private collections know this kind of glasses, which are from 7.-13. Century were produced and are a nice document for the high standing Islamic medicine ...

Two glass bells made of green, slightly iridescent glass are presented:

- large bell (left in the picture): H 5.6 cm; Diameter 5.0 cm.

- small bell (right in the picture): H 4.0 cm; Diameter 3.9 cm.

 In both bells, the originally about 10 cm long intake manifold is broken and measures only 2.5 cm (large bell), resp. 3.0 cm (small bell).