Page 127 - My FlipBook

CAEIES OF THE TEETH. 61

moisture (literally, a sharp moisture) which eats them away and
destroys them so that finally with much pain they rot away little
by little.
In the same volume this writer gives also the oldest authentic
mention of the use of gold for filling teeth. The paragraph runs
thus:

Sumbn'ttert bas mm bteatJe^Tfflffg
S»egg mmmet/weld)$ a>effe gefcfytcfyt/ gum ttfkn b lodj wb bte rtwfsprefjiwge mitmem
f$&4
tilen mtiffdcfytn rtber mef(erd)m vwfycf
#ber miuimm Atfoan mftvument§ar%ti
bequzmid?li #fe by proctt'cftmcctt ivol nrifieit/wtb bat?
Snerfjalbtwcj beetfttbemte^Ies b«6&we@
&4s fepcfyU'djeit mit golt bletecm $u foiled
3um mttcj?e ei'sstey
bdrjttbmltd) tt?cl<^6gc|c^ictiniit: (Btolfes
epffdwtowilber gdgen fiber$mmfy
ber rewtgwrtg barmtt wirbt gcfBUee*

The following is very nearly its meaning. The writer is
discussing plans of treatment of caries.
Translation. In the third plan, the hollow place is done
away with (taken away — removed) which is done in one of two
ways. First, the soft part of the cavity and the decayed part
is cut away with small chisels, knives, files or other suitable
instruments, and cleaned, as is well known to practitioners.
Then for the saving of the remaining parts of the tooth, the
cavity is filled with gold leaf. Otherwise one may use a suit-
able gum prepared with nutgalls and hyssop to fill the cavity
after cleaning it.
This writer mentions Mesu as an authority, a man who
lived some two hundred years earlier, who is also mentioned
by other writers, but so far as is now known, none of his writings
have been preserved.
The French writings in dentistry are older than the English,
but do not contain very clear statements of view of the pathology
of caries. Generally the statements are equivalent to saying
the teeth rot away or decay away, without attempt at explana-
tion of the process.