Page 148 - My FlipBook

150 SECOND PERIOD—THE MIDDLE AGES ;

subject at greater length, profiting by what has been written on the
subject bv all the ancient writers, and especially the Arabians.
Among the many remedies which he recommends against toothache,
here are some:
"I^—Wild mint, pyrethrum, white pepper, myrrh, two drams of each;
let these be pulverized and made into a paste with the pulp of raisins or
with white wax and with some turpentine; and let this mass be divided
into small balls as large as filberts, of which one must be masticated at a
"^
time, with the aching teeth.
Another masticatory is composed of origanum, pyrethrum, cinnamon,
and ginger, made into a paste with the yolk of an egg cooked under the
coals.
To calm dental pains, the vapors of a decoction of wild lavender,
marjoram, rue, chamelea, and melilot are often efficacious. As to fumi-
gations, they can be made not only with vegetable substances (onion or
mustard seed, rue, etc.), but also by burning scrapings of the hoof of an
ass. The fumes may be made to reach the aching tooth, by means of a
funnel. Here are the words of the author: " Fiant suffitus ex rasura
ungulae asini, et fumus recipiatur per infundibulum."
Decayed teeth may be filled, according to Valescus, to satisfy four dif-
ferent indications: To calm or prevent pain, to prevent any further spread-
ing of the caries, to kill the worms, and to sweeten the breath. He advises
that the carious cavities should be filled up with powdered nigella, pepper,
myrrh, salt, and theriac; or else with pyrethrum, gum ammoniac, and
opium; or else with celery seeds pulverized, opium, and hyoscyamus
or with the cast-ofF skin of serpents boiled in vinegar; or with gallia and
cyperus. The filling with these last two substances are especially suit-
able, according to the author, to preserve the teeth from further spreading
of the caries: "Si gallia et cyperus cavis dentibus applicentur, dentes
ulterius non corrodentur."
To kill the supposed worms of the teeth, Valescus counsels three
different methods, of which the first consists of the usual fumigations
with seeds of hyoscyamus, onion, leek, coloquintida; the second consists
in filling the carious cavity with a mixture of myrrh and aloes; and lastly,
the third, in applying inside the cavity the milky juice of the tithymal, or
the juice of the persicaria.'-
In regard to tartar of the teeth—which he calls materia lapidea, i. e.,
stony substance—Valescus says that it must be removed little by little,
either with iron instruments or with dentifrices partly cleansing and partly

' V;iksf: I'lnlonmm, tfi-. Fiaiu-ofurti MDXCIX, cap. Ixiv, l)c- ilolort- dfiuiimi,
; p. 195
ft SL(|.
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I'larit Ixlonjiiiig to rlic order of" the Polygonacea;.