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FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY
96
vinegar, the decoction being then used to wash the teeth with; but this,
however, must be kept in the mouth for some length of time. In order
to render this remedy less nauseous, Sallustius Dionisius used to hang
several frogs, by their hind feet, over a vase in which he boiled the vinegar,
so that the juices of the animals might drip into this from their mouths.
To make loose teeth firm, some advise the soaking of two frogs, after
having cut off their feet, in a hemina of wine, and the washing of the
mouth with the latter. Others tie them, whole, on the jaws. Some, to
strengthen unsteady teeth, rinse them with a decoction made by boiling
ten frogs in three sextaries^ of vinegar, until the liquor is reduced to one-
third. By others, thirty-six hearts of frogs are well boiled in a sextary
of old oil, in a copper vessel, and the oil is then used against toothache,
dropping it into the ear, on the side of the pain. Some, after having
boiled the liver of a frog, pound it w^ith honey, and smear it on the sore
teeth. If the teeth are decayed and fetid, many counsel the drying of
a hundred frogs in an oven, leaving them there for one night, then the
addition of an equal weight of salt, reducing the whole to powder, and
rubbing the teeth with it. In such cases the ashes of crabs are also
used. That of the murex" is adopted as a simple dentifrice."
"The cutting of teeth is facilitated by rubbing the gums of the child
with the ashes of dolphin's teeth mixed with honey, or even simply by
touching the gums with a tooth of this animal."^
In Chapter XXXIV of Book XXXVI it is said that the decoction of
gagates* in wine cures the diseases of the teeth; and in Chapter XLII of
the same book are praised the dentifrice powders made of pumice stone.
From the examination of Pliny's work several important facts come
out.
The diseases of the teeth were, in those days, most common; very often
we find mention of loose teeth, and the medicines suited to make them
firm again; from which we may deduce the great frequency of alveolar
p\orrhea. It is reasonable to think that such a fact was caused prin-
cipally by the intemperate life of those times, in which the followers of
Kpicurus were extremely numerous and the unbridled desire for pleasure
reached such a degree that no abhorrence was felt of provoking vomit
during the course of a long banquet, in order to continue dining merrily.
Concerning the teeth, their affections, and the means of healing and
preventing them, the strangest superstitions existed, and this not only
among the common, but also among educated and learned people.
1 he number of remedies reputed useful against diseases of the teeth

['i he sextarius was aecorded diftenru values, rliiis a sextary of oil was oxviij, of wine
'
,')XX, and of honey, ?>xvij.— E. C K.]
^ [Lat., the purple fish, a carnivorous marine niolkisk.— I^. C. K.]
'
Lil). xxxii, cap. xlviii. * A kind of lignite, now called jet.