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128 SECOND PERIOD-THE MIDDLE AGES
that with which thou shalt scrape the outside; and that with which thou
shalt scrape the interstices between the teeth shall likewise have another
shape. Therefore, thou must have all this series of scalpels read)-
if so it pleases God."^
The work of Abulcasis is, so far as we know, the first book in which are
found figures of dental instruments. We do not know, however, how
far such figures are exact, that is, to what degree of faithfulness they
represent the instruments which Abulcasis really employed as the original
figures of the book of Abulcasis were copied and recopied by successive
transcribers of the work. And that such copies have been very often
unfaithful may be deduced from the fact that not unfrequently figures of
surgical instruments are found in the book which do not at all agree
with the verbal description which the author gives of such instruments.
In the edition bv John Channing, we find at the end of the chapter
on the scraping of the teeth two series of figures. The first series is
found under the Arabic text, and is composed of the fourteen figures
reproduced as Fig. 35 ; the other series, existing under the Latin text,
has only twelve figures, as shown in Fig. 36.
As Channing has made his translation from two different Arabic copies
of Abulcasis, among the corresponding figures of which there exists a
very notable difference, he, for the greater part, had to follow the plan of
reproducing the figures of both codices. But besides this numerical differ-
ence, there is also a considerable difference in the shape of the instruments
represented. We must, therefore, ask ourselves which of the two series of
figures is to be regarded as the more faithful representation of the instru-
ments used by Abulcasis. Most probably the first series. In it we find
figured some scrapers which have a certain resemblance to those actually
in use; besides this, the figures of the first series seem to be drawn with
greater accuracy than those of the second. Among other things it may
be noticed that the handle of each instrument (excepting the last two)
is furnished with a row of prominences, which, it is almost certain, were
designed to afford a better grip in holding the scrapers during the
operation.
We now consider the chapter on the extraction of teeth. '' The author
begins by sa)ing that it is necessary to use all possible means to cure an
attack of odontalgia, and to be very slow in deciding to extract a tooth,
as this is a very noble organ, the want of which cannot in any way be
perfectU' supplied. When there is no way of avoiding extraction and the

' I tiis yrcat Mahommedan surgeon was, it seems, very religious. His book begins with
the words: "In the name of the merciful God, Lord perfect in goodness," and almost
every chapter ends with "If God so wills," and the like.
- These two manuscript codices are found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
' Lib. 185.
ii, cap. xxx, p.