non sibi sed toti	Classics Teaching Resources

Roman Medicine Bingen is a small town on the Rhine that has become famous for Hildegard of Bingen, mystic, writer and composer. The Bingen museum contains, besides material on Hildegard, the finest collection of Roman medical instruments. They were found in a grave, clearly of a doctor. The pictures here are offered as a resource for teaching about Roman medicine. The topic comes up in the Cambridge Latin Course with the sickness and death of Barbillus in Alexandria. The museum explanations are included among the pictures. I apologise that my identifications of particular instruments may not be certain. The doctor's grave at Bingen During extensive construction work in the years after the First Word War in the area directly next to Burg Klopp in Bingen, more than 120 Roman graves were found. An exciting discovery was made on June 6, 1925, near Cromstrasse, next to a funeral tomb made of brick slabs, containing an urn and several burial gifts, stood a bronze bowl containing several surgical instruments. The grave of a physician of the second century had been discovered. Doctors' graves from the imperial Roman period are archaeology's most important source for antique medicine. Up to now more than a hundred graves have been discovered worldwide from the period of the first to the third centuries A.D. which, by reason of the medical instruments, can be identified as doctors' graves. Usually, the burial gifts were limited to a few medical tools, representing the entire equipment of a doctor. Extremely rich doctors' graves, such as those found in Reims or Luzzi, contain 20 instruments at most. The physician's grave at Bingen is an absolute exception - with 67 single pieces, it contains the most extensive matching set of antique medical instruments ever found. - Information panel in Bingen Museum. Chisels, Bone Levators, Forceps Chisels were used to scrape fistulas and sores from bones. According to the treatment area, wide or narrow, hollow or round types of chisels were employed. A surgical chisel was almost completely identical to one used in wood working Unmistakable identification as a medical tool is only possible when they are found with clearly surgical instruments, as is the case here in Bingen. Bone Levators do not necessarily belong to the standard equpment of a doctor. They are regarded as the special tools of a surgeon. The fact that there are four bone levators in the set of Bingen instruments is a clear indication of the speciality of the physician who was buried here. Forceps are universally applied holding and pulling instruments. Doctors used them for the removal of small foreign objects or to grab soft parts during an operation. The open ends of surgical tweezers were often serrated to improve their gripping capacity. - Information panel in Bingen Museum. Brain surgery Even in pre-Roman times, it was possible to perform operations on the head. For example, fractures could be treated by opening the skull (trepanning). Such operations were also attempted to relieve sources of infection. A complete and unique set of instruments in the Bingen doctor's grave testifies to the development of trepanning techniques in the imperial Roman period. A drill with serrated teeth on its lower edge was achored to the patient's head with a central hook and rotated with gentle pressure. For this, a drive bow (fiddler's bow) was used, such as thoe usually employed in the craft of drilling. When a sufficiently large hole had been drille, treatment of the injured bone could begin. In the case of a fracture, a lever-like tool could be used to lift the indented part of the skull back to its correct position. - Information panel in Bingen Museum.          Scalpels Roman surgery used a large number of different scalpel blades for incisions and others with rounded, cutting blades suitable for deep cuts. The blades were exchangeable; they were pushed from the side into a groove in the knife handle. The scalpel handles were also used as surgical instruments. Their characteristic spatula shape indicates that the doctor used them to hold the edges of an incision apart during an operation. The bronze scalpel handles are more resistant to corrosion than the iron blades and thus are more often preserved in graves. This can also be seen in the rich find of Bingen ith its 9 knife blades and 13 handles. The matching decoration of the Binge scalpels indicates that they were all produced by a single instrument manufacturer. Unidenifiable Tools The function of some of the objects that were preserved among the antique medical instruments in Bingen can no longer be identified today. in the case of some broken iron pieces, this is mainly due to their poor state of preservation. With other pieces, there are numerous ways they could have been used: a small bronze pipe (No. 60) could be identified as a needle holder or as a drain for body fluids after an abdominal operation. A lance shaped iron point (No. 59) cannot be compared with any known medical instrument. We must rely on evidence: could its remarkable lack of corrosion indicate its use as a brand? A physician could have used the heavy iron hook (No. 66) to set a broken arm, the bronze double hook No. 67) to hold a lamp. In any case, the hooks are examples of tools in the equipment of a doctor that were not specifically medical instruments. A doctor's votive altar.          Cupping Glasses Bloodletting or cupping was one of the most important methods of treatment In antique medicine. This suction process resulted in better blood circulation in isolated body areas or, if the skin was first scratched, blood could be drawn. For this cupping glasses were used, in which a negative atmospheric pressure was generated before application, either by heating or extraction of the air. # Cupping glasses are known from pre-Roman times In archeological discoveries end pictorial representations. They were considered intrinsic symbols of the physician. Thus, their frequent presence in doctor's graves can by explained. An artistically worked stand decorated with wine tendrils belongs to the Bingen cupping glasses. Such a device is unique in archeology. Hippopotamus The sculpture of a hippopotamus with an uraos (an Egyptian cobra) on its back is a possible indication of the origin of the doctor buried in Bingen: the Hippopotamus as well as the uraos are typical North African animals, not found in Europe. One One of the most medical medical academies was in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and the doctor coud have come from there. The hippopotamus is hollow inside; perhaps it was used for aromatic essences or drugs.