Page 139 - My FlipBook

THIRTEENTH TO IIFTEENTH CENTURIES 141

and the Rtj.ui tuiglicn turnislies us with not tew examples. In order
to make a tooth fall, Gaddesden advises the application of dried crow's
dung reduced to powder, or else to annoint it with the fat of a green frog.
This last means would he (juite infallihle and would make the tooth fall
out on the spot. It had such power that if peradventure an o.x in grazing
chews a little frog with the grass, its teeth will all fall out on the instant!
We do not know whether the author himself helieved in the marvellous
virtues of the fat of green frogs. It is certain, however, that he enumerates
this among his "secrets," and says that he has gained much mone\ from
it through the mediation of the barhers.
Other absurdities of the same kind are the following: The brain of
the hare can, h\ being rubbed on the gums and jaws, serve for two im-
portant purposes, since it has not only the virtue of facilitating dentition,
but also of making teeth grow again to those who have lost them! The
brain of a partridge applied to a carious tooth makes it fall in pieces!
The treatment of odontalgia embraces, according to Gaddesden, both
general and special means of cure. To the former belong purgatives,
bloodletting, scarifications of the labial and sublingual mucous mem-
brane, leeches, the application of scarified cuppings under the chin.
The special means of cure are represented h\ a great number of plasters,
powders, and ointments, in the composition of which almost constantlv
h\oscyamus and pyrethrum take part. When odontalgia depends on
caries, the author advises, among other things, the use of a red-hot iron.
Against the supposed worms of carious teeth he counsels fumigations
with the burnt seeds of hyoscyamus or of leeks. In cases of dental
fistulas, it is necessary to cauterize the fistulous tract, to extract the
diseased tooth, and if the bone be also affected, to scrape it. To clean
the teeth: Gaddesden recommends several dentifrices; some of which
are composed of pulverized cuttle bone, either with addition of meer-
schaum, pumice stone, burnt hartshorn, in different proportions and com-
binations, or used quite alone; others are made with m\ rrh and alum.
Since Gaddesden affirms the existence of means capable of promoting
the fall of any tooth, we should suppose that he says nothing about instru-
mental extraction, or at least that he considers it entirely useless; for if
in order to make a tooth fall out, it be sufficient to smear it with frog's
tat, wh\- should there ever be an\- need to have recourse to the ver\-
painful extraction h\ means of the forceps t
However, this is not so; the author treats of instrumental extraction as
a very important operation, without being at all afraid of being repro\ed
for contradicting himself. Besides, to anyone who thus reproved him
he perhaps would have answered, without being disconcerted, that it
is not alwa\s possible to have the fat of frogs or the dung of crows in
readiness.