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156 SECOND PERIOD—THE MIDDLE AGES

characteristic, and varies but little from the average, Arculanus advises
the teeth being filled v^ith gold-leaf: " Ubi non fuerit umltus recessus
a mediocritate, impleatur cum fob is auri."
Although Arculanus is the first writer who alludes to the filling of
teeth with gold, nevertheless it is by no means admissible that he was
himself the inventor of gold filling. His words do not at all sound to us
as the announcement of a new discovery, as the enunciation of a new
fact, in which the author himself had had, at least, a part, be it great or
small. Nothing of all this; the advice as to filling the teeth, in certain
cases, with gold leaf is given quite impersonally, and is found, as if it
were a point of minor importance, at the end of a long paragraph,
which includes various other counsels in regard to the filling of teeth, one
of which is, that this operation should not be performed with too great
violence.^ In short, the writer does not show the least intention of putting
in evidence the aforesaid fact, or of giving to it any special importance.
We must, therefore, hold that gold filling had already been in use for
a long time among dentists, and that Arculanus simply mentions what
was done by the dentists of those days. (See note page 164.) It is
evident, on the other hand, that he had no special competence in dental
art, when we consider that he was even ignorant of the exact number of
dental roots. Naturally, the question here arises: At what period did
gold begin to be used for the filling of teeth .? But unfortunately history
has not, up to the present, furnished us any evidence which may lead to
the solution of this problem.
For the eradication of a tooth Arculanus gives three very precise indi-
cations: (i) When the pain resists every other means of cure. (2)
When there is any danger of the disease spreading to the neighboring
healthy teeth. (3) When the tooth is troublesome in speaking and in
masticating.
Before extraction, the patient must be prepared for it by bloodletting,
purgatives, and narcotics; and the operation must be commenced bv
separating the gums from the tooth.
Arculanus admits, like many of his predecessors, that the eradication
of a tooth may be efl^'ected not only by the forceps and other suitable
instruments, but also by other means. One of these would be the use
of the actual cautery, repeatedly applied inside the hollow of the tooth, if
this is decayed; or, in the contrary case, made to act all around its root

'KcgiiiKn iiufcni inipUndo denteni corrosum est, lit impleatur in causa calida cum
fri^idis, et in frigida cum calidis. Secundo, ut non impleatur cum labore et vehementia
addentc in dolore, et ex propriis est pallia cum ciperis aut cum mastiche, et eligantur ex
suprascriptis, calida aut frigida secundum opportunitatem, in contrarium dyscrasi:e dentis,
sed ul)i non fuerit multus recessus a mediocritate impleatur cum foliis auri."
Cap. xlviii,
P- 195-