Why was Ammonius called Lithotomos? disputed

Positions

1. For the process

   Celsus says that Ammonius, the inventor of the stone-splitting process, was for that reason surnamed lithotomus.

   Sources

   1. Celsus, De Medicina 7.26, tr. W. G. Spencer (Perseids) Primary

2. For the instrument

   Riches (1967) says the surname came from the instrument he invented to break a stone too large to pass through a perineal incision.

   Sources

   1. Riches 1967, The history of lithotomy and lithotrity (Arnott Demonstration, RCS) Secondary

Evidence

Celsus describes the method: a scoop holds the stone at the wound and a blunt instrument is struck to split it. Both explanations tie the name to the same innovation. Riches dates Ammonius to about 200 BC; no other dated source for him is in the kit.

Current standing

Both accounts agree on what Ammonius did. The film uses the plain gloss, the stone-cutter, and hedges his date with 'perhaps two centuries before Christ'.

All sources