A History of Dentistry from the most Ancient Times until the end of the Eighteenth CenturyGuerini, Vincenzo
History
A History of Dentistry from the most Ancient Times until the end of the Eighteenth Century
Guerini, Vincenzo
Dentistry -- History
BRUNO OF LONGOBUCCO. After the Arabian period, the first author whom
we must mention is Bruno of Longobucco, of the school of Bologna,
who lived in the thirteenth century and wrote a treatise on surgery,
which gave him a certain renown.[227] This book, however, contains but
little about diseases of the teeth. The author shows himself a great
friend of the actual cautery, and advises its use in the cure of dental
caries and of various diseases of the gums. He says nothing about the
extraction of teeth; instead, he recommends, as a means for making
a diseased tooth fall out, that the milky juice of the tithymal be
applied around its root after having been reduced to the consistency of
paste by the addition of flour.[228]
LANFRANCHI, of Milan, another writer of the thirteenth century, who
acquired great fame by his book _Chirurgia magna et parva_—partially
translated into German, more than two centuries later, by Otto
Brunfels—also shows himself very timid in the sphere of dentistry,
and to combat dental pains he recommends, by preference, the use of
narcotics. He is not at all favorable to the extraction of teeth; and
especially that of the molars is considered by him a very dangerous
operation.[229]
TEODORICO BORGOGNONI (1205 to 1298), known also under the name of
Teodorico of Cervia, is according to Hæsar the first author who made
mention of sialorrhea following mercurial frictions. Worthy of note,
too, is what he says in regard to fistulas of the gums, or, in general,
of the maxillary region. He advises that in every case of this kind
special attention be paid to the state of the dental roots; when there
is a discharge of ichorous pus, the roots are certainly affected; and
then the diseased teeth must all be extracted as soon as possible.[230]
JOHN GADDESDEN, an English doctor who flourished at Oxford in the
first half of the fourteenth century, wrote a very curious medical
book, taken the greater part from Pliny and the Arabian writers and
entitled _Rosa anglica: practica medicinæ a capite ad pedes_ (English
rose: the practice of medicine from head to foot). In his time many
strange methods of cure were in use, sometimes simply ridiculous,
and others even filthy; and the _Rosa anglica_ furnishes us with
not few examples. In order to make a tooth fall, Gaddesden advises
the application of dried crow’s dung reduced to powder, or else to
anoint it with the fat of a green frog. This last means would be quite
infallible and would make the tooth fall out on the spot. It had such
power that if peradventure an ox in grazing chews a little frog with
the grass, its teeth will all fall out on the instant! We do not know
whether the author himself believed in the marvellous virtues of the
fat of green frogs. It is certain, however, that he enumerates this
among his “secrets,” and says that he has gained much money from it
through the mediation of the barbers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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