Page 164 - My FlipBook

166 THIRD PERIOD-MODERN TIMES

The book, therefore, lacks importance from a dental point of view,
except in the sense that it shows how little skilled in the cure of dental
affections were the German surgeons of those days
It is worthy of note that this author, also, speaks of anesthetic inha-
lations; he, however, only translates, almost to a w^ord, what Guy de
Chauliac says on this subject.
Toward the end of the fifteenth century and in the first half of the
sixteenth there were published in German, by anonymous authors, some
short translations and compilations on dental subjects, taken especially
from Greek and Arabian authors.^ Of these writings, the first one known,
taken from Galen and Abulcasis, was printed at Basle in 1490; and
another—one of the best—saw the light at Mayence in 1532. These
w^orks were perhaps due to intelligent barbers, or perhaps—and this
seems to be the most probable—they were written, through the initiative
of enterprising printers, by doctors and surgeons, who wished to remain
unknown, on account of the special subject treated; for, owing to the fact
that the diseases of the dental system were generally left in the hands of
barbers and other unprofessional persons, the doctors and surgeons of
those days would have been ashamed to interest themselves in such
things.
Walter Hermann Ryff, of Strasburg, was born in the beginning of
the sixteenth century, and died about 1570. He was a rather mediocre
doctor and surgeon, and a man of the vv^orst morals, so much so that
many cities expelled him from their midst. ^ He wrote many medical
works, in which, however, there is very little original matter. Their
principal merit consists, perhaps, in the fact that they were written not
in Latin, as then was universally customary, but rather in the vernacular
of the author and in a popular style; so that RvfF may be looked upon as
the first who endeavored to diffuse among the people useful medical and
hygienic knowledge.
Among Ryff's books there are two which are very important to us.
One is his Major Surgery^ and the other is a pamphlet entitled Useful
Instruction on the JVay to Keep Healthy, to Strengthen and Reinvigorate
the Eyes and the Sight. tVith Further Instruction on the Way of Keeping
the Mouth Fresh, the Teeth Clean, and the Gums Firm}
Of these books, there now only exist some extremely rare copies ; so
much so that neither Albert von Haller nor Kurt and Wilhelm Sprengel,
who rendered such great services to the history of surgery, ever had the
pleasure of examining them. Dr. Geist-Jacobi has been more fortunate

' Geist-Jacobi, p. 88. - Albert von lialKr, l^ibliothcca chirurgica, i, 190.
' Nuet/hchcr Ikricht, wie man die Augen unci dasCiesicht scbaerfen und gesund eihalten,
die Zaehne frisch und fest erhalten soil. Wiir/burg, 1548.