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THIRTEENTH TO ElETEEXTH CENTURIES l.')!

st\ ptic. After the tartar lias been reiiioNed, it is necessar\' to wash the
teeth often with w liite wine and to ruh them with roasted salt.*
Valescus, too, hke the majority of ancient writers, is not at all favor-
able to the extraction of teeth. He says that recourse must not be had
to this operation except when a tooth is the cause of most violent pain
and ever\' remed\ has been of no a\ail. Hut the reasons whicli he gives
in support of this opinion are ver\' plausible; and whilst most of the
authors who preceded hmi showed themseKes adverse to extraction,
because thev considered it dangerous, he does not allude in the least to
such dangers, but w^ishes extraction to be avoided, if possible, "because
the teeth, even when the\- are in some parts corroded, yet nevertheless,
after the pain is calmed, aid mastication and besides render the others
rmer.
fi»>l -
This author agrees with Galen in considering the teeth as bones, but
he is of opinion that the\ differ from the other bones in more than one
respect; that is, first of all, on account of their sensibility; secondly, be-
cause, whilst the other bones are formed in the uterus, the teeth are formed
outside the uterus; and lastly, for a reason which cannot but appear very
strange to us, that is: "The bones are produced by the sperm and
menstrual blood, whilst the teeth are produced by the blood in w^hich there
has remained the virtue of the sperm."'' This passage gives us an idea
of the state of embryological knowledge of those days!
PiETRO OF Argelata (or of La Cerlata), professor of surgery at Bologna
(died in 1433), wrote a treatise on surgery in six books, in which diseases
of the teeth are also taken into serious consideration. He speaks of a
great number of dental instruments, which, however, are the same as those
enumerated b\' Gu\- de Chauliac. His methods of cure do not offer
an\thing very new, being for the most part identical with those of Avicenna
and Abulcasis. He considers cleanliness of the teeth of the greatest
importance; shows what great injury is done by dental tartar—which
h\ him is considered a ver\' important sign of the bad state of the teeth
—he counsels the removal of it b\ means of scrapers, files, or the use
of strong dentifrice powders; and to make the teeth white, he even
advises the use of aqua fortis.
He says nothing in regard to the filling of decayed teeth; he, however,
counsels the cleansing of the carious cavities with aqua fortis, or even,

' "Materia lapidea paullatim abradatur ferro et dentifriciis partim mundificarivis, et
partim stypticis. Deinde colluantur denies saepe vino albo, et fricentur sale torrefacto."
Cap. Ixvii, De colore dentium praeter naturam, p. 202.
"Quoniam, licet ex parte corrosi sint, attamen dolore sedato masticationem iuvant,
et alios firmiores reddunt." Appendices, p. 205.
' "Ossa fiunt ex spermate et sanguine menstruo; dentes autem ex sanguine, in quo
remansit virtus spermatis." Appendices, p. 205.