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200 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES
fahulosiuti. Nam nnic ajuiit riianifeste vermes excidere. Re vera, incenso
semine, evolant tatiqiia veruucidi, etiam si non attingit fiumis vermtciilo-
sum defitem?)
Apart from this, in the works of HouUier, nothing is found that is of
interest for the history of dentistry. He repeats several errors and
prejudices of the ancients; he says, for example, that men have ordinarily
thirty-two teeth, women, twenty-eight; and he, too, believes in the ex-
pulsive virtues of the fat of green frogs when applied to a tooth {adeps
rancv viridis detitetn depelht).
Houllier does not contribute in any way to dental therapeutics, he only
enumerates the methods of cure recommended by preceding authors/
VoLCHERUS CoiTER (1534 to 1600), of Gtoningen, an ardent student of
anatomy, and a pupil of Fallopius, Eustachius, and Aranzio, studied
with great attention the development of bones, dissecting many fetuses and
children of various ages for that purpose. He clearly states his opinion
that the teeth are not bones, since they do not pass, like the latter, through
the cartilaginous stage, but are derived instead from a mucous substance.^
JoHANN Jacob Wecker, a doctor of Colmar, published in 1576 a
valuable medical work composed of synoptical tables, in which is briefly
summarized the best of what had been written by preceding Greek,
Latin, and Arabic authors.
One gathers from this author that at the time in which he wrote it
was considered an excellent preservative against the plague to rub the
teeth with theriac, mithridate, angelica, and zedoary. From this it may
be perceived that even in those days doctors had understood the impor-
tance of the cleanliness and disinfection of the mouth as a prophylactic
against infective diseases.
In the above-mentioned book may be found a sufficiently complete
exposition of dental therapeutics of that and of the preceding periods.
There is nothing, however, which is not already known to us from our
examination of the earlier writers. Worthy of notice is the information
that, among other things, to facilitate the cutting of teeth rubbing the
jaws with turpentine was recommended at that time.'*
DoNATO Antonio of Altomare, a Neapolitan physician and philos-
opher, dedicated a long chapter of his Ars niedica* to the subject of
dental pains and their treatment. He classifies these pains with great

' Jacobi Hollfiii mcdici |)ai"isiensis omnia opera practica, Genev;e, 1635, lib. ii, p. 117,
et seq.
-'
lilandin, Anatoniii- du systcme dentairc, Paris, 1836, p. 25.
' Hoann Weckerus, mcdicinac utriusquc syntaxes, ex Gr;ecorum, Latinorum,
Jac.
Arabumquc tbesauris collecta;, Basilea, 1576.
' Donati Antonii ab Altomari medici ac philosophi ncapolitani Ars Medica, Venetiis,
I 558, cap. xli, |). 190.