Page 51 - My FlipBook

THE GREEKS 51

having taken out the intestines of two of them (not, however, the Hver or
the kidneys); one pounds in a stone mortar some marble or whitestonc,'
and passes it through a sieve; one then mixes equal parts of these ingredi-
ents and with this mixture one rubs the teeth and the interior of the mouth;
afterward one rubs them again with greasy wool" and one washes the
mouth with water. One soaks the dirty wool in honey and with it one
rubs the teeth and the gums, inside and outside. One pounds dill and
anise-seeds, two oboles of myrrh;"^ one immerses these substances in half
a cotyle^ of pure white wine; one then rinses the mouth with it, holding it
in the mouth for some time; this is to be done tre()uentl\-, and the mouth
to be rinsed with the said preparation fasting and after each meal. Ir is
an excellent thing to take small quantities of food of a very sustaining
nature. The medicament described above cleans the teeth and gives
them a sweet smell. It is known under the name of Indian medicament."
In the book De affect loiubiis there is a passage where it is said that
inflammation of the gums is produced by accumulations of pituita, and
that, in like cases, masticatories are ot use, as these remedies favor the
secretion of saliva, and thus tend to dissipate the engorgement caused
by pituita.
Still more important, however, is the followmg passage of the same
book:'
"In cases of toothache, if the tooth is decayed and loose it must be
extracted. If it is neither decayed nor loose, but still painful, it is
necessary to desiccate it by cauterizing. Masticatories also do good,
as the pain derives from pituita insinuating itself under the roots of the
teeth. Teeth are eroded and become decayed partly by pituita, and
partly by food, when they are h\ nature weak and badh' fixed in the
gums."
Hippocrates, therefore, considers affections of the teeth to depend
in part on natural dispositions, that is, on congenital weakness of the
dental system, in part on accumulations of pituita, and the corroding
action of the same. If a painful tooth were not loose, it was not to be
extracted ; but one was to have recourse to cauterization and to mastica-
tories, intended the one and the other to dissipate the accumulation of
pituita, believed by him to be the cause of toothache.
It is easily to be understood that as only loose teeth were to be ex-
tracted, Hippocrates considered the extraction of teeth a very eas\- opera-

' The use of carbonate of lime or chalk as a dentifrice evidently goes back to antiquity.
-Unwashed wool—that is, wool not cleansed of the fat secreted by the skins of the animals
from whom it is taken—was much in use by the doctors of antiquity. One now obtains
lanolin from it.
' The obole was about three-quarters of a gram.
* The cotyle was a little more than a quarter of a liter. ' Page 507.