Page 155 - My FlipBook

THIRTEENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES lo7

(neck). The fall of the tooth might also he obtained with potential
cauteries and especially by the application of boilino; oil, or of a grain of
incense heated to the melting point.
It is plain that Giovanni of Arcoli has simph copied these things from
preceding authors, since if he had made a trial of the pretended eradicating
means, he would soon ha\ e verified their inefHciencw
Against hemorrhage of the gums, Arculanus recommends arsenic,
lime, gall-nuts, alum, and oil of roses. But, says he, the surest remedy
is the red-hot iron; and still more effectual, cauterization b\ means of
red-hot gold.
Giovanni of Arcoli's work is not only noteworthy because it mentions
gold filling for the first time, but also because in it are given the drawings
of three dental instruments, among which the pelican (here called puli-
canum). According to Carabelli, the first author who has mentioned the
pelican was the Dutchman Peter Foreest ; according to Geist-Jacobi,
instead, it was the German Walter RyfF. But both these statements
are false, because as we have just now said, the pelican was already
named and designed (not very well, it is true) in the book of the Italian
Giovanni of Arcoli, who died in 1484, that is, even before either Walter
RyfF or Peter Foreest came into the world. Neither does Giovanni of
Arcoli say one word that might imply that he was the inventor of the peli-
can, and so we are led to believe that in his days this instrument had
already been in use for some time. In the text he only says: "The
teeth are to be extracted with suitable instruments, whose figures may be
seen in the margin."'
We here reproduce the three figures alluded to, with the relative indi-
cations. The first (Fig. 56) represents the pelican; the second (Fig. 57)
is a pair of curved forceps, which seems, in those days, to have been the
instrument most commonly used for the extraction of teeth, since this
figure is accompanied by the very generic indication "shape of the
forceps for extracting teeth;" finally, the third (Fig. 58) represents the
forceps used for extracting dental fragments (roots), and which from the
long and straight shape of its jaws, was called "stork's bill" (rostrum
ciconiae).
Alessandro Benedetti, of Verona, who lived from 1460 to 1525,
and taught medicine at Padua, was, for his times, a man of uncommon
scientific merit ; but to the development of the dental art he did not
contribute anything very worthy of note.
He relates that he once abstained from buying a slave simply because

' In the Venetian edition (1542), however, all the figures which Arcuhiniis inserted in his
work are found in the beginning of the book, in a single table, together with the indica-
tion of the use to which each single instrument was destined.