Page 339 - My FlipBook

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURT 317 -

tolerance of the tooth with a temporary filhng of cement or some other
Hke substance. His experiments as to the action of acids on the teeth
are most interesting. I le found that nitric acid destroxs the enamel in
a quarter of an hour; muriatic acid acts almost as rapidh , but with the
difference that it also alters the color ot the interior parts; sulphuric acid
renders the teeth ver\- white, and, even if used for three or four days,
onh- destroys a small portion of the dental substance, but by reason of its
action the enamel becomes rough and can be easily scraped away with
a knife. Remarkable experiments on this subject were also made later
b\- Kemme.^
Pierre Auzebi, a dentist at Lyons, published a treatise on odontology
in 1771, which is only remarkable for certain strange ideas that he therein
exposes, the entire book being in complete contradiction with the great
progress already realized, at that period, in dental science. Auzebi
likens the human body to a h\ draulic machine, formed by the union of
solid and liquid parts. For him the bones are mereh' jcAded membranes
and the teeth are bones composed of small membranes. The author declares
that he is unable to admit the theory of germs in the genesis of the
teeth because "these germs, being all in identical conditions as to heat
and moisture, ought all to develop at the same time like the grains of
corn in a field." Rather than having their origin from special germs,
the teeth, he sa\s, are derived from hmph, this being, according to Auzebi,
the fundamental substance from which all the hard parts of the body are
generated. A drop of lymph gathered at the bottom of the alveolus
hardens and constitutes the first beginning in the formation of the teeth.
Beneath this other lymph is gradually collected, w^hich pushes upward
and the part of the tooth already formed, surrounds the dental vessels,
and thus becomes the root of the tooth. To facilitate dentition he recom-
mends, among other things, rubbing the gums with hard, rough, and
angular bodies. He also maintains, as does Brunner, that the milk teeth
have no roots, contradicting, in this respect, the opinion of Fauchard, of
Bunon, of Bourdet, who decidedly affirm that the deciduous teeth are
furnished with roots, preciseh' the same as the permanent ones. Accord-
ing to him, when it so happens that the milk teeth have roots, they are not
shed. To calm toothache, the author recommended a sedative elixir, the
aspirating of a few drops of which sufficed to obtain the desired effect.
John Aitkin, in 1771, perfected the English key, so as to render the
extraction of the teeth easier and to avoid the danger of fracturing the
alveolus or the tooth itself, and of injuring the gums.^

' Carabelli, p. 91.
Carabelli, p. 93; Lemerle, Notice sur I'histoire de I'art dentaire, p. 117.
'^
'*
J. Aitkin, Essavs on several important subjects in surgery, London, 1771.