In spite of this explanation, of which we will not here discuss the value, allowing it, however, as satisfactory enough, Fauchard continues by making a most curious consideration, which as it is of a somewhat surprising effect in a scientific work, we will not deprive our readers of it. He believes it to be his duty to give the following warning, namely, that “the modes of cure, by means of certain words, of certain signs, laying on of hands, written charms, etc., savoring much of superstition and of diabolic artifice, are prohibited by the Church as sinning against the first Commandment, as much in him who practises them as him who consents thereto.” After the above preliminaries, the author passes on to treat the important subject of the mode of curing caries.[421] According to him, when caries has not yet attacked the internal cavity of the tooth at all, or only in a very slight degree, there are four modes of curing it: the first consists in the use of files or scrapers, the second in the application of lead, the third in the use of oil of cinnamon or of cloves, and the fourth in the application of the actual cautery. Fauchard expresses most energetically his disapproval of the means of cure recommended by Dionis in cases of caries of the triturating surfaces, which consisted in the cauterizing of the decayed spot with a drop of oil of vitriol applied by means of a miniature paint brush, declaring this to be both dangerous and hurtful because of the destructive and corrosive action of the oil of vitriol and because of the impossibility of limiting its action solely to the affected part of the tooth. The general method of cure followed by Fauchard is described by him in these terms: “When a tooth is but slightly decayed, it is sufficient to remove the caries with the instruments of which I will speak hereafter, and to fill the cavity with lead. If, however, the cavity be rather deeper and occasions pain, one should, after having scraped it, put a small ball of cotton-wool soaked in oil of cinnamon or of cloves into the hollow of the caries every day. This medication must be continued for a sufficient time, taking care to squeeze in the cotton-wool by degrees to accustom the sensitive parts to the pressure. Four or five days later one removes the material from the carious cavity. This treatment sometimes prevents a return of the pain; it produces on the osseous fibers of the tooth a slight but sufficient exfoliation and impedes the progress of the caries. If the pain should not cease after having continued this method for a sufficient length of time, one should then have recourse to the actual cautery and stop the tooth after a certain time, if the form and situation of the decayed cavity permit it; for one sometimes meets with cavities that are not able to maintain the stopping.