[The accompanying reproduction of the title page and two text pages from an edition of _Zahnarzneybuchlein_, printed by Michael Blum, in Leipzig, 1530, and translated below, is of interest in connection with the history of the use of gold-foil as a filling material, in that a marginal note refers to Mesue as the author from whom the three methods of treating caries has been derived, one of these methods being the filling of the carious cavity with gold-foil. Mesue was Surgeon to the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, who flourished 786-809. If the reference to Mesue is correct, it would, therefore, indicate that the filling of teeth with gold was known to the Arabs as early as the latter part of the eighth century. Examination of the writings of Mesue has thus far failed to bring to light any record therein of the treatment of caries by gold filling, although in his work previously referred to (see page 138) the other methods quoted by the anonymous author of _Zahnarzneybuchlein_ are fully set forth. [Illustration: Latin text.] [_Translation._] FIFTH CHAPTER. ON CARIOUS AND HOLLOW TEETH. Corrosion is a disease and defect of the teeth when they become carious and hollow, which most often happens in the molars, especially if one does not clean them of the adhering food which becomes moist and consequently produces bad, sharp [acid] moisture that eats and corrodes them, always gradually increasing, until it spoils the teeth entirely, which afterward must fall away in pieces not without pains. “_Mesue ut supra capite proprio._” This, as Mesue writes, is chiefly cured and removed in three ways. First, by purging as treated upon above. Second, by dissolving the material which renders them hollow and eats them away; also by boiling cockles that grow in barley or wheat, in vinegar and holding this in the mouth. In this vinegar the root of caper and ginger and other similar remedies must have been previously boiled. Third, by removing the decay, which is done in two ways. First, by scraping and cleaning the hole and the carious part with a fine chisel, knife, or file, or other suitable instrument, as is well known to practitioners, and then by filling the cavity with gold leaves for the preservation of the other portion of the tooth. Second, by using suitable medicine, such as oak apples or wild galls, with which the tooth is filled after having been cleaned. [Illustration: German text.]