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250 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

physician and anatomist, Heinrich Meibom. The mucous membrane of
the maxillary sinus was considered by him as the real point of departure
of the diseases which occur in this cavity, it being liable to become
inflamed and to suppurate, thus giving rise to much pain and to various
accidents. Meibom rejects the operation of Molinetti, that is, the tre-
panning of the cavity from the front, the lesion produced in the soft parts
of the face being likely to give rise to unpleasant consequences. "Some,
he adds, try the introduction of medicated vapors into the antrum,^
but the best way is to open the maxillary sinus by extracting a tooth,
as the pus generally makes its way as far as the roots of the teeth."'" The
author says that his father, who was also a physician, had already used
the above method with success. He does not speak at all of the artificial
opening of the antrum by perforation; but, as is well known, this is not
necessary in many cases, so that, even now, the operation is sometimes
reduced to procuring the opening of the sinus by the simple extraction of
a tooth, as was, in fact, practised by Heinrich Meibom and his father.
Seeing that Heinrich Meibom was born twenty-eight years before
William Cowper, and was already known to the scientific world when
Cowper was still a child, it is very probable that his operative method,
having come to the knowledge of the latter, was only followed up and
perfected by him.
Charles St. Yves (1667 to 1733), oculist in Paris, records an interest-
ing case of a secondary affection of the maxillary sinus. The point of
departure ot the evil was an abscess in the orbit. The suppurative
process, after having produced an erosion and the perforation of the
orbital plane, had reached by propagation the antrum of Highmore,
whence the pus took its way, issuing through the nose. St. Yves had a
molar tooth extracted on the affected side (we do not know which side
it was), after which, day by day, he made injections of detersive liquids
through the orbital fistula, which returned constantly through the
alveolus of the extracted tooth. By this means the cure of the patient
was obtained.^
Christopher Schelhammer (1649 to 1716), who was professor in
various German universities, and distinguished himself specially as an
anatomist and as an ear doctor, strongly recommends stopping decayed
teeth as the best means of causing pain to cease. If, however, the stop-
ping does not hold, by reason of the cavity being too extended, it is then
necessary, says Schelhammer, to extract the tooth; this, however, may

' Prob;il)ly throuj^h the nose.
H. Meibomii de abscessum intcrnorma narura ct consritutione cliscursus. Dresda; et
i^ipsi.c, 1718, p. 114. (tin's edition was published after the author's death, which took
place in 1700.)
' St. Yves, Nouveau traite' des maladies des veux, 1722, p. 80.