Page 54 - My FlipBook

24 HlSTOiiY OF DENTAL SURGERY

he wisely recommends that it may he relieved by the application of "cold
tilings/"' and when the pain originates from the cold he declares it is very much
assuaged by taking something "warm in the mouth."
Here are some of his prescriptions, for toothache caused by cold: "Take
ginger steeped in vinegar and hold it in the mouth while warm; or take pepper
and euforbium powdered and mix it with honey and apply this upon the
teeth; or take asafoetida and mustard mixed well together, which is also good;
or take one-half peach kernel and one-half pepper, grind these together finely
and apply this to the tooth. There are numerous other remedies for this class
of toothache." Then the author recommends remedies for toothache caused by
heat, among these he prescribes: "Take the skin of a snake, steep it in
vinegar and hold it in the mouth, or instead of the vinegar employ the wine
of pomegranates."'
For shooting pain in the teeth this is the prescription : "Take pepper,
incense, biirnt beans; reduce them to powder; mix them with white of an
egg; make into a plaster; spread this upon a small piece of cloth and ap-
ply it on the inside of the cheek on the side where the pain is; or take the
liroth of frogs, boiled in water with vinegar, and hold this in the mouth."
He further observes that when the cheeks begin to swell "is an indication
of the cessation of pain, the materials that caused the pain having left the
veins that enter the teeth and the membrane or skin which comes from the
brain and surroimds the teeth, and have gone to the external fleshy parts, the
cheeks." He next describes "corrosio" as a disease and fault of the teeth which
makes them full of holes or hollows, mostly affecting the back teeth, especially
when after eating they are not cleaned of particles of food that adliere to
them. "This becomes decayed and creates a bad offensive moisture, which
etches and eats into the teeth and gradually gains the upper hand until the
teeth are entirely destroyed, not without creating pain, however," he writes.
As a prevention for decay, he prescribes that the cockle weed, which grows
among rye or wheat, be steeped in vinegar and held in the mouth.

FIRST REFERENCE FOUND TO GOLD FILLING.
He also recommends that the decay in the cavity be removed, in one of
two ways. The first is that the cavity be cleaned with a suitable instrument
and knife and "he filled with leaves of gold;" the other is that medication be
employed, such as gall apples, galbanum or opopanax.
Jean Arculanus, who was a professor in Bologne, early in the sixteenth cen-