Page 356 - My FlipBook

332 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

usual toothpick, even if he had tried to do so regardless of pain. But
when the toothache was over, the same toothpick again became service-
able as before. He says that there is no cause for wonder that in odon-
titis no redness of the teeth is to be perceived, for in other inflammations
as well, redness is wanting, and, moreover, it exists in the interior mem-
brane of the tooth. As in other inflammations, so also in odontitis, the
usual issue is resolution. Dental fistulae may derive from internal sup-
puration. The impurities deposited on the teeth are by him supposed
to be owing to an increase of their secretion! According to the author,
caries, the breaking down of teeth apparently healthy, as well as their fall-
ing out, is generally caused by an inflammation ot these organs, that is,
by odontitis, an affection that, he says, may be of very varied kind, the
principal forms being the rheumatic, arthritic, sympathetic, and gastric.
Ranieri Gerbi.^ In a book by this author we find recommended a
very singular cure for toothache, even of the most violent nature. It
is in no way scientific, and is besides not particularly pleasant, notwith-
standing that the author, professor at the University of Pisa, was a
scientist of merit, enjoying special esteem as a mathematician and
cultivator of natural sciences.
Under the name of curcuho auti-odojitalgicus he describes an insect
living habitually inside the flowers of the carduus spnwsissinius, that
could be used with great advantage against toothache, in the following
manner: One crushes fourteen or fifteen larvae of the insect between the
thumb and forefinger, and then rubs the two fingers together until the
matter remaining upon them is entirely absorbed. Instead of the larvae
(which, as is known, represent the first stage of insect life) one may also
use the fully developed insects. One then applies the two fingers that
have crushed the insects or their larv^ upon the decayed and aching
tooth. If the pain is of a nature to be cured by this means, it diminishes
almost instantaneously, and ceases altogether in a few minutes. It is
said that the fingers preserve their healmg power for a great length of
time, even a whole year, and in proof of these assertions Ranieri Gerbi
speaks of no less than six hundred cures performed! Other insects
besides the curcult o anti-odontalgicus, used in the same manner, are said
to possess the same curative properties, among them the ciirculio jacece,
carahus chrysoccphalns, and the curcuho Bacchus, which last, says Gerbi,
has long been used for this purpose by the peasants of Tuscany. The
author also says that some German doctors and naturalists experimented
with success with several insects indigenous to Germany as remedies
against toothache. These insects, also mentioned in a work published in
I^ayreuth in 1796, author unknown, are:' the coccinella septempuuctata,

' Sroria natiiriilc di iin iiiiovo insotro, Firenze, 1794. " Dcr anfrichtige Lalinarzt.