Page 165 - My FlipBook

THE SIXTEENTH CENTLIR}' 167

than the\ , and has therefore been able to give us some ver\' interesting
information about their contents.
The Major Surgcrv is a mere compilation which does not contain
an\ thing new of importance. It was published in part in 1545, and
in part in 1572, after the death of the author. The work is illustrated
with verv beautiful wood engravings; and it is just this which gives the
principal value to this book. Some of the illustrations contained in the
first part of it—that is, in that published in 1545—represent dental instru-
ments, notwithstanding dental surgery is not treated in this part of
the book. The author gives notice that he will treat all that concerns
dental affections in the latter part of this book, in a special chapter.
Unfortunately, this chapter was never written, because death prevented
R\ff from completing the second part of his work.

Fig. 59

Pelican and dental forceps (Walter Hermann R\ft).

The dental instruments represented in his Major Surgery are man\- in
number. Among them, first of all, are found the fourteen dental scrapers
of Abulcasis, then the "duck-bill"—designed for the extraction of dental
"
roots and broken teeth—various kinds of pelican (Fig. 59 a), the common
dental forceps" (Fig. 59 b), the "goat's foot," and many other kinds of
elevators, among which, observes Geist-jacobi, ma\' be seen instruments
even now in use, and even some which are said to have been recenth'
invented.
Ryff's other book is especially noteworthy because, as we have already
mentioned, it treats, for the first time, of dental matters, independently