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THE ARABIANS 123

in the tube until (|uite cooled. Should even this h;i\e no effect, he tries
to provoke the fall of the tootli h\ the application ot asses' milk \\ith
assafetida, or, Hnalh, extracts it.'
He cures epulis, like Paul of ^^gina, h\- excision. As to parulis, or
abscess of the gums, he opens it with a lancet or a wooden stylus.
When the dental arch is deformed b\- the existence of supernumerar\-
teeth, he removes these with an instrument in the shape of a heak.-'
SER.A.PION (Jahiak Ebn Serapion), who li\ed in the tenth centur\,
and up to the beginning of the eleventh, contributed but slightl\ to the
development of medicine and dentistr\ , as he was in his writings little
more than a mere compiler. He indicates with great precision the number
of dental roots, and expresses an opinion that the upper molars have need
of their three roots in order to keep firm in spite of their pendent position,
whilst two roots alone are sufficient to keep the low^er molars in place, on
account of the support which thev receive from the jaw. Serapion, like
Galen, admits the nutrition and continual growth of the teeth— a growth
which is produced in the same proportion as the waste due to mastication
—and he too makes the dental diseases depend upon an alteration in the
nutritive process, either by excess or by defect.
Against dental pains of phlogistic origin, he recommends bloodletting,
purgatives, and manv local medicaments, reproduced in great part from
Rhazes. In cases of persistent odontalgia due to caries, he advises, as
an excellent remed\ , the application of opium in the carious cavitw lo
strengthen loosened teeth, he first emplovs astringents, and if these are
of no use, as often happens in the old, he binds the loose teeth together
and to the neighboring healthv ones, bv means of gold or silver wire.
In Serapion, too, w-e find man\- formulas for dentifrice powders, some
of which are intended simplv for cleaning the teeth, others for special
prophylactic or curative purposes.'
AviCENNA. One of the greatest luminaries of medicine among the
Arabs was Avicenna (Ebn Sina). He was born in 980 son of a high Persian
functionary; he lived a very adventurous life, held some very high places,
and died in 1037. Among his works, the most important is the Canon,
a book which procured him the title of "second Galen" and the still
more pompous one of "prince of doctors." A ver\- evident proof of the
immense fame w^hich he acquired is the fact that among many oriental
peoples Avicenna, even in our own da\s, is considered the greatest
master of medicine.
The anatomy and physiolog\- of the teeth are treated h\ .Avicenna
very minutely, but nevertheless he does not teach us, in regard to these,

' Ihid., cap. xxxiii.
' Haly Abbas Pract., lib. v, cap. Ixwiii.
' Serapionis practica, Venetiis, 1503.