ch to
the glass, and glass to the skin over the incisions, as before
recommended.[123]

Hills recommended practicing on a table, "taking care, of course, that the
lancets are not allowed to strike the table."

According to Bayfield, the blades of the scarificator were generally set
at 1/4". If cupping behind the ears, they should be set at 1/7", if on the
temple at 1/8", and if on the scalp at 1/6". When the cups were two-thirds
full, they were removed and reapplied if necessary. This, too, was no easy
task. One had to manipulate cup and sponge deftly in order to avoid
spillage. Cupping was to be not merely a neat operation, but an elegant
one. After cupping, the wound was dabbed with alcohol or dressed, if
necessary. Scarificator blades could be used some twenty times. After each
use, the scarificator was to be cleaned and greased by springing it
through a piece of mutton fat.[124]

A great variety of bodily parts were cupped, just about any part that had
sufficient surface area to hold a small cup in place. Knox, for example,
gave directions for cupping on the temple, back of the head, behind the
ears, throat, back of the neck, extremities, shin, chest, side, abdomen,
back and loins, back of the thighs, perineum, sacrum, and on buboes.[125]
In reply to those who wondered if cupping hurt, Knox asserted that "those
who calculate the pain incurred in cupping by comparison with a cut finger
are very much deceived." The scarificator itself produced little pain, he
claimed, but he admitted that the pressure of the rims of the glasses
could cause a degree of discomfort.[126]

_Nineteenth Century Attempts to Improve Cupping Technology_

The story of nineteenth-century attempts to improve cupping technology is
an interesting one, in that a great deal of effort was expended on
comparatively short-lived results. For those who were adept at cupping,
the cups, torch, and standard scarificator were quite adequate.
Innovations were thus aimed at making the operation more available to the
less practiced. The new gadgets could not rival the traditional
instruments in the hands of an experienced cupper, and, moreover, they
were usually much more expensive.

Most of the attempts at innovation centered in eliminating the need for an
alcohol lamp or torch to exhaust the cups. As far back as Hero of
Alexandria,[127] we find directions for the construction of "a
cupping-glass which shall attract without the aid of fire." H