Page 296 - My FlipBook

274 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

never should have expected to find in his book; but he assures us that
by it many persons who had ahnost all the teeth decayed and suffered very
often from toothache found great relief
" It consists in rinsing the mouth every morning and also in the evening
before going to bed w^ith a few^ spoonfuls of one's own urine immediately
One
after it has been emitted, always provided the individual be not ill.
is to hold it in the mouth for some time, and the practice ought to be
continued. This remedy is good but undoubtedly not pleasant, except in
so far as that it procures great relief. Some of those to whom I have
recommended it, and who have used it, have assured me that in this
manner they were relieved of pain to which, up to then, they had con-
tinually been subject. It is rather difficult in the beginning to accustom
one's self to it; but what would one not do to secure one's self health
and repose."
In order to explain the virtue ot the urine as a remedy, the author
pauses to speak of its chemical composition, and then adds:
"The rectified spirit of urine^ could be substituted for the human urine.
One should then take two drams of this substance and mix it with two
or three ounces of aqua vitae, or water of cresses or of cochlearia. Sal
volatile" has the same virtues. Those who wish to make use of it should
dissolve fifteen to thirty grains of it in the same quantity of the above
liquid."
Fauchard then passes on to speak of trepanning of the teeth when
they are worn away or decayed and cause pam.^ He begins by saying
that most varieties of pain caused by the canines and the incisors when
worn away or decayed cease after the use of the trepan. He, however,
understands the term trepanning in a very wide sense, comprehending
therein the use of any instrument whatever (even a needle or a pin) with
which one penetrates into the inner cavity of the teeth.
In interstitial caries of the canines and incisors one ought, says Fauch-
ard, first to enlarge the interstice with a small file of a convenient shape,
then to scrape the decayed cavity, and finally to open up the canal or inner
cavity of the tooth with a perforator or with a small trepan.
"In this way the pus or other humors that may have collected in the
tooth can easily find their way out, and the pain will cease at once or in
a short time."
The author describes with much minuteness the manner of trepanning,
and then adds:
"After this operation one should let a few weeks pass without doing
anything to the affected tooth, and afterward, in order to impede further
decay, one must put a little cotton-wool into it soaked in oil of cmnamon

' Li(jiiul ;immonia. - Subcarbonate of ammonia. ' Chap, x, p. 169.