Page 213 - My FlipBook

THE SIXTEENTH CENTUR}' L>OI

accurac\', taking into account their scat and causes, and pointing out in
each single case the method of cure to he followed according to the warm,
cold, dr\', or humid nature of the pain. In what he sa\s, howcNcr, we
do not find an\ thing new.
GiULio Cesark Aranzio (1530 to 15H9), a celehrated surgeon and
anatomist of Bologna, in which citv he taught from the age of twent\-
six \ears until his death, is of the opinion that parulides that is to sa\,
inflammations or abscesses of the gums—and epulides that is flesh\
excrescences of the same—are usually caused h\ caries or putrescence
of the teeth; but that in certain individuals, from a peculiar weakness
of the gums, these are easih' attacked b\' inflammation when the wind is
in the south.
In the case of parulides, to soothe the pain and to accelerate the
suppurative process, emollient substances should be used; afterward it
is necessary to open the abscess with a lancet, to wash the mouth with
mulse, and to aid the process of cicatrization bv using syrup of roses.
As to epulides, these must be made to disappear, bv sprinkling the
tumor with the powder of gall-nuts, or b\ moistening them fre(|uentl\
with a decoction of gall-nuts, or with sulphur water. But if the\ do not
vield to these remedies, and are the cause of functional disturbances,
the surest and most prudent method of cure would be the use ot the
red-hot iron.
Giovanni Andrea Della Croce, a celebrated Venetian pinsician
and surgeon, was the author of a most valuable treatise on surger\', which
was published first in Latin {Chiriirguv universalis opus ahsolutinn,
Venetitiis, 1573), and then in Italian under the title of Chinirgm
universale e perfetta, Venezia, 1583. According to this author, dental
fistulae are more common to the lower jaw than to the upper one. 1 o
cure these fistulae, it is necessary to extract the diseased teeth from w hich
they originate, even should the\ ache but little or not at all. To confirm
this, he relates in full a very interesting case of a dental fistula, that he
cured by the extraction of a tooth w^hich hardl) ached at all.
Flajani^ chose to see in this case a precocious example of the opening
of Highmore's antrum through the alveolus. But the description given
by Andrea della Croce of his case does not at all warrant this supposi-
tion.
At the end of his book Andrea della Croce gives us the figures of many
dental instruments, which have, however, nothing new about them.
Gerolamo Capivacci, of Padua, repeats the advice (alreadx given by
preceding authors) to avoid, in eating and drinking, the rapid changes
from heat to cold, and vice versa, since, says he, nature does not tolerate

* Collezione d'osservazioni e riflessioni, vol. iii, oss. 84, p. 374.
,