The Tools of Asclepius: Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (Studies in Ancient Medicine, 43)
Product ID: 223492404
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With The Tools of Asclepius Lawrence Bliquez offers the first comprehensive treatment in English of the instruments and paraphernalia employed by Greco-Roman surgeons since John St. Milne’s Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (1907). Introductory sections cover topics ranging from literary and archaeological sources to the design, materials and production of instruments and the training and practice of the doctors-surgeons who used them. Summaries of Hippocratic and Hellenistic surgery lead to the meat of the book: tools used during the Roman Empire. These are presented by category (e.g. Cutting Instruments) broken into subcategories (Scalpel, Lithotome, etc.). A substantial appendix deals with biodegradable items, such as suppositories. Much new material is featured and the book is richly illustrated. Review: Pleasantly written handbook on Greek and Roman surgical implements - I am making a study of balance scales in Greek writing, art and artifacts. My interest is in the formalization of balance scales as a problem in statics in the Aristotelian Mechanica, Archimedes, Hero and Pappus. As background reading for this I am looking for places levers were used in skilled crafts like construction, money changing, ships, and surgery. This book by Bliquez seems to be a well documented handbook of the tools used by Greek and Roman surgeons. Bliquez describes implements from archaeological sites at Pompeii, Rimini and Colophon, and other places appear too. The author does not seem to say much about the crafting of surgical implements. He says what materials they were made from but I have no sense for the actual procedures followed for making them. It is one thing to say that metals melt at some temperature and another know how ores were turned into metals and metals turned into tools. I mention this because a broad enough book on surgical tools could talk as much about metallurgists and blacksmiths as surgeons, but here the emphasis is on the use of the instruments not their production. I have not yet found an authoritative English handbook on ancient metallurgy and blacksmithing for someone who has never worked with metals; there are books that assume experience working with metals, and there are books for general readers that do not give the reader a robust sense of the topic. But this is not a complaint about Bliquez because he does not claim to cover blacksmithing. Aside from the theory of the four humours and of the hot, cold, wet and dry, the big components of Greek medicine seem to be pharmacy and surgery. I don't have a sense for how powerful the drugs used were, but a tidy theory of degrees of strength was worked out. This theory of degrees of strength feels similar to the later scholastic theory of intension and remission. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many comprehensive handbooks were written about various ancient subjects like numismatics, ships, metallurgy, weights and measures, geography etc. Many of these have never been replaced. Instead modern scholars regularly cavil with them. I fancy that there are barely any people in academia competent and interested in these topics: it is much more in fashion to write works about, say, "women's bodies in Greek medicine" or to talk about bizarre depictions of inhabitants of the torrid zone as a chance to list problematic things, and these scholars who give us such a thin contribution to learning themselves depend on the authoritative handbooks. The writing is good. I do not have any training in medicine but having read many technical works, I sense that this will be pleasant to read by physicians who want to learn something substantial (rather than popularized accounts of ancient medicine) about Greek and Roman surgery.
| Best Sellers Rank | #7,944,451 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #3,779 in General Surgery #5,220 in Ancient Greek History (Books) #5,332 in History of Medicine (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 Review |
J**L
Pleasantly written handbook on Greek and Roman surgical implements
I am making a study of balance scales in Greek writing, art and artifacts. My interest is in the formalization of balance scales as a problem in statics in the Aristotelian Mechanica, Archimedes, Hero and Pappus. As background reading for this I am looking for places levers were used in skilled crafts like construction, money changing, ships, and surgery. This book by Bliquez seems to be a well documented handbook of the tools used by Greek and Roman surgeons. Bliquez describes implements from archaeological sites at Pompeii, Rimini and Colophon, and other places appear too. The author does not seem to say much about the crafting of surgical implements. He says what materials they were made from but I have no sense for the actual procedures followed for making them. It is one thing to say that metals melt at some temperature and another know how ores were turned into metals and metals turned into tools. I mention this because a broad enough book on surgical tools could talk as much about metallurgists and blacksmiths as surgeons, but here the emphasis is on the use of the instruments not their production. I have not yet found an authoritative English handbook on ancient metallurgy and blacksmithing for someone who has never worked with metals; there are books that assume experience working with metals, and there are books for general readers that do not give the reader a robust sense of the topic. But this is not a complaint about Bliquez because he does not claim to cover blacksmithing. Aside from the theory of the four humours and of the hot, cold, wet and dry, the big components of Greek medicine seem to be pharmacy and surgery. I don't have a sense for how powerful the drugs used were, but a tidy theory of degrees of strength was worked out. This theory of degrees of strength feels similar to the later scholastic theory of intension and remission. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many comprehensive handbooks were written about various ancient subjects like numismatics, ships, metallurgy, weights and measures, geography etc. Many of these have never been replaced. Instead modern scholars regularly cavil with them. I fancy that there are barely any people in academia competent and interested in these topics: it is much more in fashion to write works about, say, "women's bodies in Greek medicine" or to talk about bizarre depictions of inhabitants of the torrid zone as a chance to list problematic things, and these scholars who give us such a thin contribution to learning themselves depend on the authoritative handbooks. The writing is good. I do not have any training in medicine but having read many technical works, I sense that this will be pleasant to read by physicians who want to learn something substantial (rather than popularized accounts of ancient medicine) about Greek and Roman surgery.
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