Page 146 - My FlipBook

148 —— SECOND PERIOD—THE MIDDLE AGES

au trou." If advantage is not even derived from such an operation,
recourse must be had to cauterization, or, if necessary, to extraction.
Even Guy de Chauhac beheves in the worms of the teeth, and against
these he recommends the usual fumigations. He advises that the seeds
of leek, onion, and hyoscyamus be mixed with goat's tallow and made
into pills of a dram each in weight, one of which is to be used for
each fumigation: "Si dans le trou il y a un ver, apres le susdit
lavement,' la dent soit sufFumiguee avec une graine de porreau et d'oignon
et semence d'hvosciame, confits avec suif de bouc; et qu'on en fasse
des pilules chacune d'une drachme et qu'on y en employe une a chaque
fois."
In the following chapter Guy treats "De la limosite et laide couleur des
dents." Here, too, he recommends, before all, the general hygienic rules
above mentioned. Besides, he advises the mouth being rinsed with a
vinous decoction of wild mint and of pepper, and then the use of the
following dentifrice:
"I^ Cuttle-bone, small white seashells, pumice stone, burnt stag's horn,
nitre, alum, rock salt, burnt roots of ins, aristolochia, and reeds. All
these substances must be reduced to powder together, or each one sepa-
rately." Use may also be made of a liquid dentifrice thus prepared:
"I^ Sal ammoniac and rock salt, half a pound of each; saccharine alum,
one-quarter of a pound. These to be reduced to a powder and placed in
an alembic of glass, so as to obtain a liquid, with which the teeth must
be rubbed by means of a little scarlet cloth."
If these means of cure are of no avail, on account of the presence of
hardened limosity (tartar), this must be removed by scraping it away
with appropriate instruments. "Et si cela ne profite, a cause qu'il y a
la des limosites endurcies; soient rasclees avec des rapes et spatumes."^
Against the setting of teeth on edge (^endormement et congelation des
dents; stupor et congelatio dentium), Guy de Chauliac recommends hot
wine or aqua vita?, to be kept in the mouth; or the teeth to be rubbed
with roasted salt; or the application to them of hot roasted walnuts and
filberts and similar things which convey heat; or lastly, masticating sub-
stances, which possess heating properties, such as the portulaca (purslane)
and its seeds.
The chapter on the extraction of teeth and of dental roots is a simple
summary of what Abulcasis says on this subject; some passages of this
author are copied word for word.
Whilst the Arabian surgeon treats rather lengthily of the deformities
ot the dental arches, and the methods to be employed in correcting these,

* Here lavement means mouth wash, not injection.
^ Cum raspatoriis et spatuminibus radantur.