Page 38 - My FlipBook

38 FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY

book a long series of "general remedies for every kind of toothache."
There are about forty of these, and decoctions and powders predominate
among them, the latter to be rubbed on the painful spot. Decoctions
are the form of medicament most in use among- the Chinese. In this
list of about forty anti-odontalgic remedies we find as many as eighteen
decoctions, seven for internal use, and the others to be employed as
mouth washes. Some of the latter are compounded with vinegar
instead of with water.
Four remedies of the above list are to be made into a paste and formed
into pills, to be applied upon the aching tooth.
Another medicament is also to be formed into pills and applied inside
the ear.
The following remedy is particularly worthy of note:
"One roasts a bit of garlic, crushes it between the teeth, and after-
ward mixes it with chopped horseradish seeds, reducing the whole to
a paste with human milk; one then forms it into pills; these are to be
introduced into the nose on the side opposed to that where the pain
is situated."
Two other remedies, in powder, are to be snufFed up through the
nose.
A powder to prevent the progress of caries is prescribed, with which
the tooth should be rubbed every day, or it may be applied on the decayed
spot.
Finally, two powders are also prescribed for whitening the teeth. One
of these is compounded of seven ingredients, among which is musk;
the other has only three substances in its composition: salt (gram 25),
musk (gram 1.8), tsarig-cul-tsee (gram 36).
A therapeutic method much in vogue among the Chinese is acupunc-
ture, which is used in the treatment of the greatest variety of affections,
including those of the dental system. The doctors of the Celestial
Empire have the greatest faith in this operation, which they hold
capable of removing obstacles to the free circulation of humors and
vital spirits, thus reestablishing that equilibrium of the organic forces
which constitutes health, and the absence of which causes disease.
The Chinese doctors prefer to use gold or silver needles for punc-
turing; but they also frequently use needles of the best steel. These
instruments vary very much in length, in thickness, and in form, and
there are not less than nine distinct kinds of puncturing needles.
Every doctor who intends dedicating himself to the practice of this
operation has to begin by the most accurate study of the elective points
for puncturing according to the various affections; he should also
know to what depth precisely to drive the needles in each case, in order
to reach the site of the morbific principle and procure convenient exit