According to him, toothache is a disease proper to man, no other animal being liable to it. To keep free from odontalgia, there is, says he, a very simple means, which consists in rubbing the teeth once a year with the blood of a tortoise. This is the first writer who has noted the harmful effect which mercury has on the gums and teeth, whether this remedy be used internally or externally, that is, by friction. [Illustration: FIG. 56 The pelican as represented in Giovanni d’Arcoli’s work. Forceps pro extrahendis dentibus pulicanum dicta.] [Illustration: FIG. 57 Dental forceps (Giovanni d’Arcoli.) Forcipum pro extrahendis dentibus forma.] [Illustration: FIG. 58 The forceps called “stork’s bill,” as represented in Giovanni d’Arcoli’s work. Forceps pro extrahendis fragmentis quod Rostrum Ciconiæ dicent.] Benedetti recommends that before proceeding to the extraction of a tooth an accurate diagnosis should be made, so that it may not happen that, by mistaking for true odontalgia a pain localized in the gums or in the jaw, a sound tooth be drawn, under the belief that it is the cause of the pain; for, this happening, not only would the pain continue, but there would be, in addition, the loss of a sound tooth, and also the disadvantage of the neighboring ones becoming less firm, for want of support. This author, too, attributes great importance to dental worms, believing them to be one of the principal and most frequent causes of odontalgia. To kill them he recommends the usual fumigations and several other remedies, among which the juice of the leaves of the centaury or of the peach tree, but especially applications of aqua vitæ. When it is thought well to have recourse to opium to calm toothache, he advises this to be used with the utmost prudence; and on this point, he relates having witnessed a fatal case, in the person of a gentleman of Padua, by the incautious use of this remedy. In extraction Benedetti repeats all the precautionary measures recommended by the ancients, and he, too, advises that recourse should not be had to this operation, if not as a last remedy, that is, when every other means of cure has been found useless.[267] GIOVANNI OF VIGO. The celebrated surgeon Giovanni of Vigo (1460 to 1520), speaking of abscesses of the gums,[268] says that the abscess must be first brought to maturity by fitting remedies, if it has not ripened spontaneously, then it must be opened with a lancet, and lastly, to cleanse the diseased part and to aid cicatrization, honey of roses or Egyptian ointment must be used. This latter is thus composed of: “℞—Verdigris, rock alum, _ana_ two ounces; honey of roses, one ounce; plantain water and pomegranate wine, _ana_ two and one-half ounces. The whole to be made to boil, and to be stirred with a small rod, until the mixture is reduced to the consistency of honey.” For the cure of old fistulas he employs not only the above-mentioned Egyptian ointment, but also arsenic and corrosive sublimate.