A History of Dentistry from the most Ancient Times until the end of the Eighteenth Century. Vincenzo Guerini
medical art (which was almost entirely in the hands of the Greeks) to become a great source of lucre. But an art practised with the sole purpose of making money soon degenerates to the level of a trade; it is, therefore, hardly to be wondered at if very few doctors of that epoch have merited being recorded in history.
Among these few, the name Asclepiades (born at Prusa, in Asia Minor; died in Rome ninety-six years B.C.) shines with particular lustre. He was the founder of the “methodic school,” whose curative precepts, largely based upon hygiene, come nearer to those of modern scientific medicine. Unfortunately, all the writings of this great physician, whose name is almost as glorious as that of Hippocrates, have been lost; we do not know, therefore, whether and in how far he contributed to the development of our specialty.
But one of the first places in the history of dental art is due without doubt to Cornelius Celsus, of whom we will now speak.
Cornelius Celsus. The historical researches in regard to the life of this celebrated author have given but meagre results. It is uncertain whether his birthplace was Rome or Verona. The precise dates of his birth and death are also unknown; but it is very probable that he was born about thirty years before Christ, and that he died during the fifth decade of the first century.
Aulus Cornelius Celsus belonged to the illustrious patrician family of the Cornelii. He was a man of great erudition, and wrote on the most varied subjects, and among others, on agriculture, on rhetoric, on the art of warfare, on medicine, etc. All these writings, however, are lost to us excepting his excellent treatise on medicine.
Some historians consider that Celsus was a true doctor by profession; others, instead, hold that he never undertook the cure of the sick. Neither the one nor the other of these opinions is quite acceptable; and it is much more likely, as Daremberg observes in his valuable Histoire des Sciences Médicales, that Celsus was one of those philiatri mentioned by Galen, who had studied medicine rather from books than at the bedside of the sick, but who, although not doctors by profession, in case of necessity, put their knowledge and skill into practice on behalf of their relations and friends.112
The work of Celsus, gathered in great part from Greek authors, has an especial value, because it sums up, in an admirable manner, the whole of the medical and surgical science of the ancients, from the earliest times up to the days of Augustus.
The first book of the work De Medicina113 does not contain anything of great importance in regard to dentistry. The following hygienic precept is, however, worthy of note: “After rising, if it be not winter, the mouth should be rinsed with a quantity of fresh water.” In regard to the hygiene of the mouth, nothing more is found in the work of Celsus; and it is also necessary to note that the aforesaid precept forms part of a chapter, in which he speaks of the rules of life, which must be observed by weak people, to which class—the author remarks—belong a greater part of the inhabitants of cities and almost all literary men. According to Celsus, therefore, perfectly healthy and strong people would not even need to wash their mouths with fresh water, and perhaps the keen-witted Roman doctor was not wrong; for it is very probable that the saliva and mucous secretion of the mouth, in perfectly healthy individuals with normal constitutions, have the power of combating the pathogenic germs that produce caries and other diseases of the teeth and mouth. In this way the fact can be explained of many peasants and the greater part of the individuals of the negro race having such good teeth, without possessing even the remotest idea of what hygiene of the mouth may be. And here I venture to refer to a passage in which Celsus alludes to the relation between diseases and civilization with its vices: “It is probable that in ancient times, although there was but little knowledge of medicine, health was for the most part well preserved; this being due to good habits, not yet spoiled by intemperance and idleness. These two vices, first in Greece and then among us, have brought upon us a very host of evils; whence it is that in our days, in spite of the intricate art of medicine—once not necessary to us, as it is not necessary to other peoples—few among us attain the beginning of old age.”114
In the second book, speaking of the various kinds of disease to which the different periods of life are subject, he writes: “Children are especially subject to serpiginous ulcers of the mouth, called by the Greeks aphthæ. … There are also infirmities due to dentition, such as ulceration of the gums, convulsions, fever, looseness of the bowels; and it is especially the eruption of the canine teeth which produces these disturbances. To these, however, very fat children are more particularly liable, and those, also, who have costive bowels.”
In Chapter XXV of the fifth book we find the receipt for a narcotic drug, recommended by the author for producing sleep in persons tormented with odontalgic and other pains. This receipt is very complicated, being composed of ten ingredients, among which are acorns, castoreum, cinnamon, poppy, mandrake, and pepper.
Most important for our subject is Chapter IX, of the sixth book, where the author treats of odontalgia. “In toothache, which may be numbered among the worst of tortures, the patient,” says Celsus, “must abstain entirely from wine, and at first, even from food; afterward, he may partake of soft food, but very sparingly, so as not to irritate the teeth by mastication. Meanwhile by means of a sponge he must let the steam of hot water reach the affected part, and apply externally, on the side corresponding with the pain, a cerate of cypress or of iris, upon which he must then place some wool and keep the head well covered up. But when the pain is violent, the use of purgatives is very beneficial, the application of hot cataplasms on the cheek, and the keeping in the mouth of some hot liquid, prepared with fitting medicine, changing this liquid, however, very frequently. For this purpose the root of cinquefoil may be boiled in wine, or that of hyoscyamus (henbane), or a poppy-head, seedless and not too dry, or the root of the mandrake. But in regard to the last three remedies, one must be careful not to swallow the decoction whilst it is kept in the mouth. For the same purpose one may boil the bark of the root of the white poplar in wine, or the scrapings off a stag’s horn in vinegar or figs in mulse115 or in vinegar and honey. It is useful also to pass repeatedly around the tooth the end of a probe which has first been wrapped around with wool and then dipped in hot oil. It is customary also to apply around the tooth certain remedies, after the manner of plasters. For this purpose the inside of the peel of dried, bitter pomegranates may be pounded with equal quantities of gall-nut and pine bark; to these must be added a little minium116 and the whole mixed together with the addition of rain water to form a paste; or else a similar paste may be formed with equal parts of panax,117 poppy, peucedanum,118 and taminia grape119 without stones; or with three parts of galbanum to one of poppy. On the cheek, however, must be applied at the same time the cerate spoken of above, covered over with wool.”
Celsus then speaks of a revulsive adopted, in his times, against odontalgia. It was composed of myrrh and cardamom, ana one part; saffron, pyrethrum, figs, pepper, ana four parts; mustard seed, eight parts. The plaster, spread on linen, was to be applied on the shoulder corresponding to the side of the pain, and, according as this was situated in a tooth of the upper or lower jaw, the revulsive was applied on the back of the shoulder, or in front.
When a tooth is decayed, Celsus advises that there should be no haste in drawing it; but that the pain be combated, if the above medicines are not sufficient, with others more energetic. A mixture may, for example be applied to the tooth, composed of one part of poppy, two of pepper, and ten of sory,120 pounded and mixed to a paste with galbanum; or else, especially in the case of a molar tooth, the remedy of Menemacus, resulting from saffron, one part; cardamom, soot from incense, figs, pepper, pyrethrum, ana four parts; mustard seed, eight parts; or even a more complicated remedy made with pyrethrum, pepper, and elaterium,121 ana one part; scissile alum,122 poppy, taminia grape, crude sulphur, bitumen, laurel berries, mustard seed, ana two parts.
“If, says Celsus, the pain renders necessary the removal of the tooth, this may be made to fall to pieces, by introducing into the cavity a pepper berry without its skin, or a berry of ivy, pared in the same way. The same result may be obtained in the following manner: The sharp bone (aculeus) of that flat fish called by the Greeks trygon and by us pastinaca, must first be roasted and then reduced to powder and mixed with resin, so as to form a paste; which applied around the tooth will make it fall out. Likewise, scissile alum induces the fall of the tooth, when introduced into its hollow. This substance, however,