Page 226 - My FlipBook

212 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

For epulides and parulides Fabricius advises the same methods of cure
that had been recommended by Paul of y^^gina.
In the case of flaccidity of the gums accompanied by looseness of the
teeth, the treatment must consist, first of all, in superficial cauterization
with the red-hot iron, after which the gums must be smeared with honey,
the mouth washed with mulse, and lastly astringent powders must be
used.
If the gums are much swollen, in near relation to the molar teeth, the
use of the red-hot iron, says Fabricius, becomes very difficult from the
want of space, and from the close vicinity of the healthy parts, which
must not be injured. In such a case, it is necessary to remove, with suit-
able cutting instruments, as much as is possible of the morbid tissue
(^caro crassa et putrida); then to cauterize the remaining part, making
the cautery, if necessary, pass through a tube, so as not to injure the
surrounding parts. When, however, the gingival swelling bleeds very
easily, and its excision thus might give rise to a profuse hemorrhage,
it will be best to perform the operation with cutting instruments heated
red-hot.
Fabricius remarks that although other authors do not make any allu-
sion to these large gingival excrescences, he had had occasion to observe
several cases, and had also had various instruments especially constructed
for their cure.^
JoHANN Heurn, or in Latin Heurnius (1543 to 1601), of Utrecht, in
his book on the diseases of the eyes, ears, nose, teeth, and mouth, treats
sufficiently at length of dental diseases and their cure, but without adding
anything of importance to what had been written by preceding authors.
His work is a mere compilation, which would be without any importance
whatever if it did not serve to show what credit was still given at that
period to all the errors and prejudices which are to be found m the
writings of the ancients.
Heurnius, although he wrote a long time after Vesalius, still adheres,
in regard to the number of teeth, to the already mentioned opinion of
Aristotle; he says, in fact, that women rarely have thirty-two teeth like
men.'
He warns those who suffer from odontalgia not to have recourse thought-
lessly to tooth drawers, but to recur, instead, to the doctor, who will always
treat the affection according to the cause on which it depends.
And here the author repeats the numerous distinctions found in many
preceding writers, and especially in Arculanus. The pain may be located

' Cap. XXX, de gingivarum cliirurgia, p. 450.
^ Joannis Heurnii Ulrrajectini de morbis oculoium, aiirum, nasi, dentium et oris, liber
Raplielengii, 1602, cap. xi, dc dentium et oris passionilius, p. 79.