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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTIR) MO?

amateur in odontol()g\), wrote a little hook' to tlispioNe the existence
of worms in decayed teeth, and to show the fallac)' of helie\ ing that the

' Die fingcbildften wiirmer in Z;iliiun, Rtiitnlnirg, 1757.
[Schatter's publication is of consitUialili- interest in that liis illuM ration lure re|ir()-
duced exhibits one of the devices somewhat generally eniplo\ed for the eradication of
dental worms as a cure for toothache. In the title of his work Schaffer describes himself
as Protestant preacher at Regensburg, member of the Royal Society of Fine Arts at
Gottingen, of the Royal Society of Science at Duislnrg, hoiiorarv' member of the Fine
Arts at Leipsic.
Ihe several details of the |-)hite are designateil as follows:
Fig. I. The supposed worms, with single and double tails, or actuall}' seed buds of
the henbane driven out by heat, natural size.
Fig. II. Kidne\-shaped seed of the henbane, natural size, without seed buds.
Fig. III. Another such seed, natural size, with the pith being driven out in bow-
shape.
Figs. IV and V. Slightly magnified supposed entrails of the tooth worms, actuall\- the
inner basis substance for the development of the seed lobes.
Fig. VI. Portion of the skin and driven out supposed entrails of the tooth worms,
strongly magnified: (aa) skin still attached; (b) supposed entrails.
Fig. VII. Seed same as Fig. II, magnified: (a) external pellicle; (/») seed bud.
Fig. VIII. Seed of Fig. Ill, magnified: (aa) external pellicle; (h) node; (.) seed
bud driven out in bow-shape.
Figs. IX, X, and XI. Three kinds of supposed tooth worms, magnified; the lettering
corresponds in all three: (a) head; (h) brown spot or mouth; (r) body; (J) apparent
opening or anus; (ee) single or double tail; (ff) brown sjiot of the tail; also an apparent
opening.
Fig. XII. Representation of the utensils aruTTbr^mode in which they are arranged
during the application of the supposed remedy against tooth worms: (a) earthen pot;
(b) opening visible on one side; (c) opening in the bottom; (Jd) iron passing through
the two side openings, on which the wax balls (containing henbane seeds) are laid inside
the pot; (e) smoke arising through the opening in the top, which is directed into the
mouth; bowl of water in which the pot is set, into which the supposed worms fall
(ff)
and in which they are found after the cure.
It would seem not at all improbable that the inhalation of vapors arising from heated
henbane seeds might in some cases, e.g., of odontalgia from pulpitis, produce a sedative effect
by the action of the hyoscyamine given off. Assuming that the method possessed even a
slight therapeutic value, that factor in connection with the apparently tangible evidence
of the existence of tooth worms which it afi^"orded to the ignorant, makes the method a
most interesting example of the way in which superstition and ignorance about medical
matters are kept alive and sustained by a very slight increment of truth.
Another interesting reference to the use of henbane seeds for the cure of toothache by
fumigation as found in an old Saxon manuscript of the ninth or tenth century, a transla-
tion of which is published in Leechdoms, Worthcunning, and Starcraft of Early England,
vol. ii, p. 51, a collection of documents illustrating the history of science in England
before the Norman conquest, published under direction of the Master of the Rolls.
The reference is as follows:
" For tooth wark, if a worm eat the tooth, take an old holly leaf and one of the lower
umbels of hartwort and the upward part of sage, boil two doles (that is, two of worts to
one of water) in water, pour into a bowl and yawn over if, then the worms shall fall into