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194 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

then extracting the deciduous tooth; for after this the new tooth may be
pressed toward the point before occupied by the other, until it assumes its
natural position.
Sometimes, when a tooth is too firmly planted, one prefers, says Pare,
instead of extracting it, to break off the crown for the purpose of being
able to act directly on the dental nerve with appropriate remedies, or
to destroy the sensibility of the nerve entirely, by cauterization. This
unreasonable and reprehensible method of cure is also quoted, under
the denomination of deschapelleiuent, by another French author, a con-
temporary of Pare—Urbain Hemard—who observes, however, that one
rarely had recourse to it; for the pain and shock which are caused by this
operation are not less than those caused by extraction.
It very often happens that the patient cannot indicate exactly which
tooth it IS that gives him pain, his sufferings being so acute as to appear
spread over a great part of the jaw. One cannot, therefore, trust too
much to the indications given by the patient as to the point of departure
of the pain, and must take care not to extract a healthy instead of a
diseased tooth.
The extraction of a tooth should not be carried out with too much vio-
lence, as one risks producing luxation of the jaw or concussion of the
brain and the eyes, or even bringing away a portion of the jaw together
with the tooth (the author himself has observed this in several cases),
not to speak of other serious accidents which may supervene, as, for
example, fever, apostema, abundant hemorrhage, and even death.
In extracting a tooth it is necessary to place the patient on a very low
seat, or even on the ground, with his head between the legs of the operator.^
After having laid the tooth bare sufficiently, if one sees that it is very
loose, one may push it out of its socket with a poussoir, that is, with a
trifid lever. But if the tooth is too firmly rooted to be extracted with this
instrument, one must make use of curved pincers, or else one may have
recourse to a pelican. The author notes, however, that much skill is
required in using this latter instrument, for otherwise it will almost cer-
tainly happen that several good teeth will be knocked out, instead of the
one intended to be extracted. In proof of this, he relates the following
anecdote, which we relate in the words of the author, that it may not
lose anything of its quaint origmality:
"Je veux icy reciter une histoire d'un maistre barbier, demeurant a
Orleans, nomme maistre Francois Loiiis, lequel avoit par dessus tous,
I'honneur de bien arracher une dent, de facon que tous les samedis
plusieurs paysans ayans mal aux dents venoient vers luy pour les faire
arracher, ce qu'il faisait fort dextrement avec un polican, et lorsqu'il

' Lib. xv, cap. xxviii.