Page 80 - My FlipBook

82 — FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY

tion. Meanwhile bv means of a sponge he must let the steam of hot water
reach the affected part, and apply externally, on the side corresponding
with the pain, a cerate of cypress or of iris, upon which he must then
place some wool and keep the head well covered up. But when the pain
is violent, the use of purgatives is very beneficial, the application of
hot cataplasms on the cheek, and the keeping in the mouth of some hot
liquid, prepared with fitting medicine, changing this liquid, however,
very frequently. For this purpose the root of cinquefoil may be boiled
in wine, or that of hyoscyamus (henbane), or a poppy-head, seedless
and not too dry, or the root of the mandrake. But in regard to the last
three remedies, one must be careful not to swallow the decoction whilst
it is kept in the mouth. For the same purpose one may boil the bark
of the root of the white poplar in wine, or the scrapings off a stag's horn
in vinegar or figs in mulse' or in vinegar and honey. It is useful also to
pass repeatedly around the tooth the end of a probe which has first
been wrapped around with wool and then dipped in hot oil. It is custom-
ary also to apply around the tooth certain remedies, after the manner of
plasters. For this purpose the inside of the peel of dried, bitter pome-
granates may be pounded with equal quantities of gall-nut and pine bark; 1
to these must be added a little minium- and the whole mixed together
with the addition of rain water to form a paste; or else a similar paste
may be formed with equal parts of panax,^ poppy, peucedanum,* and
taminia grape'^ without stones; or with three parts of galbanum to one of
poppy. On the cheek, however, must be applied at the same time the
cerate spoken of above, covered over with wool."
Celsus then speaks of a revulsive adopted, in his times, against odon-
talgia. It was composed of myrrh and cardamom, ana one part; saffron,
pyrethrum, figs, pepper, ana four parts; mustard seed, eight parts. The
plaster, spread on linen, was to be applied on the shoulder corresponding
to the side of the pain, and, according as this was situated in a tooth of
the upper or lower jaw, the revulsive was applied on the back of the
shoulder, or in front.
When a tooth is decayed, Celsus advises that there should be no haste
in drawing it; but that the pain be combated, if the above medicines are
not sufficient, with others more energetic. A mixture may, for example

' Wine with honey.
' \^M tnium is an ancient name for red oxide of lead; it was also applied to mercuric
sulphide or vermilion, and the term vermilion was also used as a designation for granum
tuhlorinn or kcrtiics, the coccus ihcis, a variety ot cochineal extolled by Galen for its
medicinal properties. The exact nature of the meaning ot minium in this connection is
not altogether clear. Y.. C K.]
' A species of herb (all-heal). ^ I'eucedanum officinale, hog's fennel.
' A species of wild grape thus called because it is red like minium (vermilion).