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THE ROMANS 117
us the treatise o// the iviiuls and the one o;/ p/ixsiognoi/HiS. In this latter
book the author attributes great importance to the canine teeth as ph\siog-
nomonic elements, and from their shape and size he makes deductions
in regard to the character ot the indi\ idual.
Oribasius (316 to 403), the most celebrated of all the compilers
who appeared during that long period of decadence, wrote, b\- order of
the P.mperor Julian the Apostate, whose physician and friend he was, a
whole medical encyclopedia and later on a summary (synopsis) of this
same work of his. In the books of Oribasius are found many things
about dentition and diseases of the teeth, but they are all taken, sub-
stantiall}-, from preceding authors, and therefore it is not worth while
repeating them.
^Tius OF Amida, a celebrated Greek writer on medicine, lived at the
end of the fifth century, and at the beginning of the sixth, and has also
left us a kind of medical encyclopedia, which, being divided into tour
sections, each composed of four books, was called Tetrahiblos. He
teaches that the mucous membrane of the gums, tongue, and mouth is
provided with nerves from a portion of the third pair of cerebral nerves,
and that the teeth, too, b\' a small hole existing at the end of every root,
receive tiny ramifications of sensitive nerves, having the same origin.
The nutrition of the teeth is understood by y^tius in the following way:
The nourishment which reaches the dental nerves is not entirely assimi-
lated b\' them; these only appropriate the liquid or soft part and reject
the drier part. This accumulates in the alveoli, becomes by degrees
more tenacious and denser, finally being transformed into osseous sub-
stance and forming the nutriment of the teeth; these, therefore, tend to
grow continually, although the waste arising from the mechanical action
of mastication prevents them from undergoing any real or visible growth.
On the other hand; in the old, from the w-eakening of the nutritive
functions, the teeth become thin and loose, and finally fall out.'
^tius advises that during dentition hard objects to chew should not
be given to children, seeing that the gums being hardened by these
and becoming almost callous would render the cutting of the teeth very
difficult.
For curing parulides, he reco nmends emollients at the beginning of
the disease, and later on astringents. But if the inflammation ot the
gums does not resolve and passes into suppuration, he prefers to perform
the excision of the parulis, instead of making a simple incision, which
might very easily cause the abscess to change into a fistula.^
The epulis, according to y^^tius, is a fleshy excrescence of the gums,
brought on b\- inflammation. To cure it, he uses, during the inflammatory
' .Etii tetrabibl., ii, sermo iv, cap. xix. - Ibid., i, sermo iv, cap. ix.
' Ibid., ii, sermo iv, cap. xxiv.
THE ROMANS 117
us the treatise o// the iviiuls and the one o;/ p/ixsiognoi/HiS. In this latter
book the author attributes great importance to the canine teeth as ph\siog-
nomonic elements, and from their shape and size he makes deductions
in regard to the character ot the indi\ idual.
Oribasius (316 to 403), the most celebrated of all the compilers
who appeared during that long period of decadence, wrote, b\- order of
the P.mperor Julian the Apostate, whose physician and friend he was, a
whole medical encyclopedia and later on a summary (synopsis) of this
same work of his. In the books of Oribasius are found many things
about dentition and diseases of the teeth, but they are all taken, sub-
stantiall}-, from preceding authors, and therefore it is not worth while
repeating them.
^Tius OF Amida, a celebrated Greek writer on medicine, lived at the
end of the fifth century, and at the beginning of the sixth, and has also
left us a kind of medical encyclopedia, which, being divided into tour
sections, each composed of four books, was called Tetrahiblos. He
teaches that the mucous membrane of the gums, tongue, and mouth is
provided with nerves from a portion of the third pair of cerebral nerves,
and that the teeth, too, b\' a small hole existing at the end of every root,
receive tiny ramifications of sensitive nerves, having the same origin.
The nutrition of the teeth is understood by y^tius in the following way:
The nourishment which reaches the dental nerves is not entirely assimi-
lated b\' them; these only appropriate the liquid or soft part and reject
the drier part. This accumulates in the alveoli, becomes by degrees
more tenacious and denser, finally being transformed into osseous sub-
stance and forming the nutriment of the teeth; these, therefore, tend to
grow continually, although the waste arising from the mechanical action
of mastication prevents them from undergoing any real or visible growth.
On the other hand; in the old, from the w-eakening of the nutritive
functions, the teeth become thin and loose, and finally fall out.'
^tius advises that during dentition hard objects to chew should not
be given to children, seeing that the gums being hardened by these
and becoming almost callous would render the cutting of the teeth very
difficult.
For curing parulides, he reco nmends emollients at the beginning of
the disease, and later on astringents. But if the inflammation ot the
gums does not resolve and passes into suppuration, he prefers to perform
the excision of the parulis, instead of making a simple incision, which
might very easily cause the abscess to change into a fistula.^
The epulis, according to y^^tius, is a fleshy excrescence of the gums,
brought on b\- inflammation. To cure it, he uses, during the inflammatory
' .Etii tetrabibl., ii, sermo iv, cap. xix. - Ibid., i, sermo iv, cap. ix.
' Ibid., ii, sermo iv, cap. xxiv.
