91 De articulis, p. 800.
92 Aphorism, lib. v, No. 18, p. 1253.
93 De liquidorum usu, p. 426.
94 De locis in homine, p. 419.
95 De morbis vulgaribus, lib. i, p. 948.
96 De partibus animalium, lib. iii, cap. i.
97 Ctesias, of Cnydus, wrote various works, somewhat earlier than Aristotle; one of which, the History of India, is very interesting, but also contains not a few fables.
98 This, as well as other errors of Aristotle, we shall find repeated throughout the lapse of centuries by many authors, Galen not excluded, who, in fact, by the authority of his name, gave them valid confirmation.
99 The distinction between arteries and veins was, at that time, not yet well known, though we already find, in this passage of Aristotle, allusion made to the relations between the teeth and the bloodvessels.
100 According to the testimony of Celsus, a very serious author and in every way worthy of belief, Herophilus and Erasistratus dissected not only corpses, but also living men, namely, malefactors consigned to them by the kings of Egypt, in order that they might make researches into the normal conditions of the organs during life, and their mode of functioning. See Cornel. Cels., De re medica, lib. i, Preface.
101 Cœlii Aureliani de morbis acutis et chronicis, lib. viii, Amstelædami, 1755, Pars ii, lib. ii, cap. iv, De dolore dentium.
102 Herophilus et Heraclides Tarentinus mori quosdam detractione dentis memoraverunt.
103 Arretium, Cære, Clusium, Cortona, Fæsulæ, Falerii, Pisæ, Russellæ, Tarquinii, Vetulonia, Volaterræ, Volsinii.
104 Deneffe, La prothèse dentaire dans l’antiquité, p. 51.
105 Dr. Cigrand in his book The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Dental Prosthesis, after having spoken of the Phœnician dental appliance described in Renan’s work, adds: “There are scores of specimens of Phœnician dental art in home collections and also at the Columbian World’s Fair.” However, until these specimens of Phœnician dental art are described and their origin is exactly known, their authenticity will always remain a matter of doubt. [Cigrand is in error. The specimens he speaks of were mainly imagined.—W. H. Trueman.]
106 Deneffe, op. cit., pp. 60, 61.
107 Deneffe, op. cit., p. 63.
108 Plinius, lib. xxix, cap. v.
109 This article forms part of the tenth table. The Law of the Twelve Tables was lost, but citations and passages are to be found in Cicero and in the works of other Roman jurisconsults, and by the aid of these it has been possible to reconstruct, at least in part, this very ancient code of laws. See Dionysii Gothofredi, Corpus juris civilis. Amstelodami, 1663; and also Thesaurus juris romani cum prefat. Ottonis, Tome iii, Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1733.
110 Josef Serre, Zahnarznei kunst, Berlin, 1804, p. 6.
111 Geist-Jacobi, Geschichte der Zahnheilkunde, p. 26.
112 See note, p. 15, Hist. Relations of Medicine and Surgery, Allbutt. (C. M.)
113 A. Corn. Celsi de Medicina libri octo, Patavii, MDCCXXII.
114 Celsus, lib. i, Preface.
115 Wine with honey.
116 [Minium is an ancient name for red oxide of lead; it was also applied to mercuric sulphide or vermilion, and the term vermilion was also used as a designation for granum tinctorum or kermes, the coccus ilicis, a variety of cochineal extolled by Galen for its medicinal properties. The exact nature of the meaning of minium in this connection is not altogether clear.—E. C. K.]
117 A species of herb (all-heal).
118 Peucedanum officinale, hog’s fennel.
119 A species of wild grape thus called because it is red like minium (vermilion).
120 Species of mineral. [An impure copper sulphide.—E. C. K.]
121 Condensed juice of the seeds of the momordica elaterium, a bitter, irritating, and drastic substance.
122 According to De Giorgi (Sinonimia chimico-farmacotecnica, Milan, 1889), scissile alum is one of the many names for blue vitriol or sulphate of copper.
123 [The cyperus rotundus, recommended by Dioscorides in the treatment of ulcers in the mouth. Esteemed also by the Arab medical writers Serapion, Avicenna, and Rhazes. Not the cypress, cupressus sempervirens.—E. C. K.]
124 Here is meant the paper made of papyrus and called in Latin charta.
125 Trisulphide of arsenic.
126 Celsus did not know of the upper maxillary bones as distinct bones. The same may be said of the other bones of the head. Celsus speaks of the osseous sutures and openings, but not of the different bones of the skull and face.
127 C. Plinii Secundi, Historiæ Mundi, lib. vii, cap. ii.
128 Lib. xxiv, cap. cxi.
129 Lib. xi, cap. lxiii.
130 Lib. xi, cap. lxiv.
131 Cap. cvi.
132 Dipsacus fullonum.
133 Cap. cviii.
134 Lib. xxviii, cap. ii.
135 Lib. xxviii, cap. xi.
136 Lib. xxviii, cap. xiv.
137 Ibid., cap. xxvii.
138 Ibid., cap. xxix.
139 Ibid., cap. xlix.
140 Ibid., cap. lxxviii.
141 Lib. xxix, cap. ix.
142 Lib. xxix, cap. x.
143 Lib. xxix, cap. xi.
144 Lib. xxx, cap. viii.
145 Lib. xxx, cap. ix.
146 Lib. xxx, cap. xlvii.
147 Lib. xxxi, cap. xlv, xlvi.
148 Lib. xxxii, cap. xiv.
149 Trygon pastinaca, a large fish whose tail is armed with sharp and strong bones.
150 A measure equal to 0.274 liter.
151 [The sextarius was accorded different values, thus a sextary of oil was ℥xviij, of wine ℥xx, and of honey, ℥xvij.—E. C. K.]
152 [Lat., the purple fish, a carnivorous marine mollusk.—E. C. K.]
153 Lib. xxxii, cap. xlviii.
154 A kind of lignite, now called jet.
155 Ignatius, because he has white teeth, is always laughing; if he be present at the felon’s trial, whilst the counsel is moving all to tears, he laughs; he laughs even when everyone is mourning at the funeral pyre of a dutiful son, whilst the mother is weeping for her only child. He laughs at everything, everywhere, and whatever he be doing; this is his weakness, which methinks is neither polite nor elegant. Wherefore, I must tell thee, O good Ignatius, even if thou wert a citizen of Rome, or a Sabine, or of Tibur, or one of the thrifty Umbrians, or of the fat Etruscans, or wert thou a black and large-toothed Lanuvin, or a Transpadane, if I may speak of my own people, or belonging to any people that cleanly wash their teeth; even then I would not have thee be always laughing; for nothing is more silly than a silly laugh. Now, O Celtiberian, in thy Celtiberian land, each is accustomed, with the water he has himself emitted, to rub his teeth and gums. Wherefore the cleaner are thy teeth, the more surely stale dost thou accuse thyself of having drunk.
156 Rerum geographicarum libri. Lutetiæ Parisiorum, 1620. Lib. iii, p. 164; quippe qui urina in cisternis inveterata laventur, eaque cum ipsi, tum eorum uxores dentes tergant; quod Cantabros facere et eorum confines ajunt (Carabelli, Systematisches Handbuch der Zahnheilkunde, Wien, 1844, i, 12).
157 Handbuch der Zahnheilkunde, Berlin, 1848, ii, 412.
160 Antiq. du Bosphore au Musée de l’Ermitage, pl. xxx, 8 et 9 (Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, par Daremberg, Saglio, etc.).
161 Mittheilung. d. antiq. Gesellschaft in Zürich, xv, pl. xi, 32 (Daremberg and Saglio, ibid.)
162 Caylus, vol. vi, pl. cxxx, 5.
164 Lib. xii, epig. xxiii.
167 Lib. ix, epig. xxxviii.
168 Nec dentes aliter quam serica nocte reponas.
169 Horat. Sat. viii, lib. i.
170 Eximit aut reficit dentem Cascellius ægrum.
171 Suffire autem oportet ore aperto alterci semine carbonibus asperso, subinde os colluere aqua calida; interdum enim quasi vermiculi quidam eiciuntur.
172 Gum of the cedar tree.
173 Dentifricium, quod splendidos facit dentes et confirmat, chap. xi, lix.
174 A Roman measure of capacity, equal to a little more than half a liter.
175 The origin of the theriac, according to what Galen writes in his book De antidotis, is to be traced back to Mithridates, King of Pontus, who lived from the year 132 to the year 63 B.C. This king, patron of Art and Science, was, for his times, an eminent toxicologist. By making experiments on condemned criminals he sought to discover by what drugs the action of the various poisons, both mineral and vegetable, and those inoculated by the bites of poisonous animals might be counteracted. He afterward mixed the various antidotes together for the purpose of obtaining a remedy that might prove a preservative against the action of any poison whatever. This universal remedy, the receipt of which was carried to Rome by Pompey, the conqueror of that great king, was named mithridatium, after the name of him who had composed it. Andromachus modified the mithridate; he took away certain ingredients and added others, reducing the number of them from about eighty to sixty-five. The principal modification was that of introducing into the composition of this drug the flesh of the viper; wherefore, Galen is of the opinion that the theriac (so called from the Greek word therion, a noxious animal) was more efficacious than the mithridate against the bite of the viper. The theriac still exists in the French pharmacopeia, although considerably simplified. In every 4 grams it contains 5 centigrams of opium.
176 A species of solanaceæ of the Physalis genus, probably the Physalis alkekengi.
177 Galeni de compositione medicamentorum secundum locos, liber v.
178 J. R. Duval, Recherches historiques sur l’art du dentiste chez les anciens, Paris, 1808, p. 19. (See Carabelli, p. 13.)
179 Galen admits three kinds of nerves: soft or sensitive nerves, originating from the brain; hard or motor nerves, originating from the spinal marrow; medial nerves, motor-sensitive, originating from the medulla oblongata.
180 Galen distinguishes seven pairs of cerebral nerves; his third pair corresponds to the trigeminus.
181 Galeni de usu partium corporis humani, lib. xvi.
182 Galeni de compositione medicamentorum secundum locos, lib. v.
183 Medicus, chap. xix.
184 Trigonella fœnum græcum, a papilionaceous plant.
185 [About twenty-eight fluid ounces.—E. C. K.]
186 Under the name of root, the ancients meant also the neck of the tooth.
187 Swallow, I tell thee, as this water will not be again in my mouth, even so my teeth will not ache for the whole year.
188 The cure of teeth affected by warm painful disease; according to Adamantius the sophist.
189 Ætii tetrabibl., ii, sermo iv, cap. xxvii.
190 Ibid., cap. xxxi.
191 Ætii tetrabibl., ii, sermo iv, cap. xix.
192 Ibid., i, sermo iv, cap. ix.
193 Ibid., ii, sermo iv, cap. xxiv.
194 Tetrabibl., ii, sermo iv, cap. xxv.
195 Ibid., cap. xxvi.
196 [The author quoted directs hydromel to be made from one part of honey and eight parts of water boiled until it has ceased frothing.—E. C. K.]
197 Pauli Æginetæ de re medica, lib. vi, cap. xxvii.
198 Lib. vi, cap. xxviii.
199 Ibid., cap. ix.
200 Ibid., cap. xxix.
201 Rasis opera, Venetiis, 1508.
202 Haly Abbas Pract., lib. v, cap. lxxviii.
203 Ibid., cap. xxxiii.
204 Serapionis practica, Venetiis, 1503.
205 Avicennæ opera in re medica, Venetiis, 1564.
206 Abulcasis de Chirurgia, lib. i, cap. xix, p. 47; Latin translation by Channing with the Arabic text in front, Oxford, 1778.
207 Cap. xx, p. 47.
208 Cap. xxi, p. 49.
209 Zegi was the name given by the Arabs to blue vitriol.
210 Lib. ii, cap. xxviii, p. 181.
211 Lib. ii, cap. xxix, pp. 181 to 183.
212 This great Mahommedan surgeon was, it seems, very religious. His book begins with the words: “In the name of the merciful God, Lord perfect in goodness,” and almost every chapter ends with “If God so wills,” and the like.
213 These two manuscript codices are found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
214 Lib. ii, cap. xxx, p. 185.
215 The Arabic word used by the author means more precisely “those who apply cupping glasses.” Channing has translated it by tonsores, barbers.
216 An advice already given by Celsus.
217 Lib. ii, cap. xxxi, p. 191.
218 Silly barbers.
219 Lib. ii, cap. xxxi, p. 187.
220 Lib. ii, cap. xxxii, p. 193.
221 Lib. ii, cap. xxxv, p. 197.
222 Lib. iii, cap. iv, p. 545.
223 [In connection with the practice of applying medicines to the teeth or upon the gums, with the object of rendering the operation of tooth extraction less difficult, the use of arsenical compounds as an ingredient of these topical applications is of peculiar interest. In an Italian translation of the writings of Johannes Mesue, published at Venice in 1521, the following interesting reference to the use of arsenic appears:
“The son of Zachariah Arazi compounds a medicine to assist the extraction of the teeth. ℞—Pyrethrum, colquintida root and the bark of the mulberry root, the seed and leaves of almezeron, huruc, and yellow arsenic, milk of alscebram or pieces of it, ground very thoroughly with vinegar; then pour some of it over bdellium and halasce, of each, equal parts, dry and dissolve in strong vinegar and make trochisi of it, and with them anoint the roots of the tooth from hour to hour; this facilitates the extraction of it.
“There is also another medicine with which one fills the decayed tooth and breaks it: ℞—Seeds of almezeron and milk of alscebram compounded with liquid pitch, and fill with it the decayed tooth. Another one: ℞—Bauras, bark of the willow, of each, one part; yellow arsenic, two parts; compound with honey and place it upon and around the tooth and immediately extract it.
“The fat of the green frog which lives upon the trees breaks teeth which are anointed with it the same as when you anoint them with milk of alscebram or titimallo, and similarly also the milk of celso with yellow arsenic.”
In this connection it is also interesting to note that the ancient Arabian medical writers referred to the red sulphide of arsenic or realgar as sandarach. The term Sandarach was clearly used by these writers to designate two different medicaments—one the gum-vernix, exudate of the Juniper tree, and which we now know as Sandarach gum. They also apply the term to red arsenic, as above stated. Avicenna clearly distinguishes between the two kinds of Sandarach, and says with regard to the gum-vernix or Juniper Sandarach that it is the best of all known remedies for toothache. While, as shown by Dr. Guerini, many of the medicaments used as topical applications to facilitate the extraction of teeth were wholly without any possible effect of that character, it cannot be doubted that the application of arsenical preparations, such as those referred to by Mesue, could not fail to set up an arsenical necrosis about the roots of the tooth, rendering it loose and easy of removal, but necessarily with the disadvantage of producing a dangerously extensive necrosis of the tissues.
Mesue Vulgar.—Impresso in Venitia per Cesaro Arrivabeno Venitiano a di vinti octubrio, mille cinquecento e vintiuno.
Delle Medicini Particulare, Libro Quarto, Capitolo XLI.—E. C. K.]
224 Joannis Mesue opera, Venetiis, 1562.
225 Sprengel, Geschichte der Chirurgie, Part II, p. 279.
226 Linderer, Handbuch der Zahnheilkunde, Berlin, 1848, ii, 403.
227 Bruni Chirurgia magna.
228 Sprengel, Geschichte der Chirurgie, Part II, p. 280.
229 Sprengel, loc. cit.
230 Sprengel, loc. cit.
231 La Grande Chirurgie de Guy de Chauliac, chirurgien maistre en médecine de l’Université de Montpellier, composée en l’an 1363, revue et collationnée sur les manuscrits et imprimés latins et français par E. Nicaise, 1890.