Page 166 - My FlipBook

168 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES —

of general medicine and surgery. This pamphlet, printed at Wiirz-
burg about the year 1544, is made up of sixty-one pages, and is divided
into three parts, the first of which is dedicated to the eyes, the second to
the teeth, and the third to the first dentition. It is written in popular
style, and the author certainly intended it for the instruction of the
public, and not for professional men; so true is this, that in it he does not
speak of the technical part of the extraction of teeth, or of gold filling
a method already known for a long time—or of dental prosthesis.
The first part, relative to diseases of the eyes and the manner ot curing
them, has no importance for us. The second part begins with the
following paragraph:
"The eyes and the teeth have an extraordinary affinity or reciprocal
relation to one another, by which they very easily communicate to each
other their defects and diseases, so that the one cannot be perfectly healthy
without the other being so too."'
This last statement is absolutely false, as a disease of the eyes may
very well exist with a perfect condition of the teeth, and vice versa.
However, Ryff has the merit of being, perhaps, the first who has noted
the undeniable relation which exists between the dental and ocular affec-
tions.
After a rapid glance at the anatomy and physiology of the teeth, the
author enumerates the causes of dental disease, which, according to him,
are principally heat, cold, the gathering of humors, and traumatic actions.
The prophylaxis of dental diseases is beyond any doubt one of the
best parts of the book; however, the ten rules counselled by Ryff for
keeping the teeth healthy—rules which Dr. Geist-Jacobi has made
known to us in full—are reproduced, almost to a word, from Giovanni
d'Arcoli's work; therefore, the author has no other merit than that of
having translated them into the vulgar tongue, thus diffusing the knowl-
edge of useful precepts for preventing dental diseases. We refrain from
reproducing the aforesaid rules here, as they are, with slight variations,
identical with those which we gave when speaking of Arculanus.
Nor can any credit be given to Ryff for the rules which he gives in
regard to the diagnosis of dental pains, as this part of his work is also
taken wholly from the Italian author just mentioned.
After these diagnostic rules Ryff, continuing to translate from the book
of (Jiovanni d'Arcoli, adds:
" If the pain comes from the gums, extraction is of no use; if it comes
from the tooth, extraction makes it cease; when, lastly, it is in the nerve,
sometimes extraction removes it, and sometimes it does not, according as
the matter obtains or not a free exit."

' Ste Giorn;iIc di Corrispondenza pei dcnristi, 1895, xxiv, 289.