FORCEPS
FORCEPS tongs, pincers, nippers or pliers, were used in
antiquity for the same purposes, and with many of the same varieties of
shape, a. in modern times.
1. A pair of tongs (
πυράγρα, θερμαστρίς),
for
[p. 1.872]taking heated metal out of the fire or holding
it upon the anvil; used by smiths, and therefore attributed to Vulcan and
the Cyclopes: see cuts under
INCUS and
MALLEUS (Hon.
Il. 18.477,
Od. 3.434; Callim.
Hymn. in Del. 144;
Verg. G. 4.175,
Aen. 8.453
forcipe curva,
Ov. Met. 12.277）
2. As a surgical instrument, a forceps (
λαβίς, Hippocr.). Several specimens found at Pompeii are figured
under
CHIRURGIA p. 415
a, and by Guhl and Koner, p. 707, ed. 5.
Among special kinds may be mentioned one for extracting spear-or arrow-heads
from wounds (
Verg. A. 12.404, where Servius
gives
ἀρδιοθήρα as the Greek equivalent);
another for drawing teeth (Cels. 7.12.1), in Greek
ὀδοντάγρα, described at some length by Aristotle
(
Mechan. 21), who, here at least, uses
θερμαστρὶς as apparently an equivalent term; a
variety for extracting the roots of teeth (Cels.
l.c.), for which
ῥιζάγρα is quoted
from Paulus Aegineta.
3. In military language, a tenaille; in which sense, however,
FORFEX is more used (
Amm. Marc. 16.11.3)
 |
|
Forcipes. (From ancient monuments, Blümner.)
a, b, and c, from vase-paintings;
c, from the altar of Vulcan at, Veii; d,
from a bas-relief; f, from an original now in the
Zürich Museum.
|
The word was derived by the ancient etymologists from
forvus or
formus,
“hot” (Fest. pp. 84, 91, M.; Serv.
ad Verg.
ll. cc.); this however, though
accepted in some modern dictionaries of repute, as well as by Curtius,
Gr. Etym. 486, is appropriate only to one of its
meanings. It is hardly possible to separate forceps from
forfex and
forpex; and the first
syllable in each is best explained with Donaldson (
Varron.2 p. 297) as referring to the
“opening” or “door” (
foris) which these instruments make in order to grasp the object.
(Blümner,
Technol. &c. ii. pp. 192, 193.)
[
W.S] [
W.W]
