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THE .1RABI.1NS 133

of more or less serious in juries, bur for the most j")arr it had tlie achantage
of" not making the patients suffer excessive torture.
Another ver\ interesting chapter is that which treats of the extraction
of dental roots and fragments of the maxillai)- bone.'

m
'^ F'k;. 41
4 n A A (\

Vu:. <.

Forceps for extracting the root when the tooth breaks in the extraction. These figures are
evidently very badly drawn, as are most of the figures to be seen in Abulcasis' work.

When, says the author, on extracting a tooth, this breaks, so that the
root remains in the socket, it is necessar) first of all to soften the part,
by applying for a day and a night, or for two days, some cotton wool
well smeared with butter; then attempts must be made to extract the root
with a pair of forceps, the jaws of which are like the beak of a pheasant
or stork.
Fig. 43

Elevator to be used when the extraction of a root by means of the root forceps
proves impossible (Abulcasis).
If this is not successful, it is necessary to remove with a scalpel the whole
of the gum w^hich covers the root; then under it must be insinuated a
small elevator having the shape here below represented.
If not even in this w^ay can the end be attained, recourse must be made

* Lib. ii, cap. xxxi, p. 187.