A practical guide to operations on the teeth : to which is prefixed a historical sketch of the rise and progress of dental surgery / by James Snell, dentist.

Snell, James, 1976-

Date:: 1831

Credit: A practical guide to operations on the teeth : to which is prefixed a historical sketch of the rise and progress of dental surgery / by James Snell, dentist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

26/232 (page 10)

$the best part of his iiiiatoiuical \viitini»s. He describes, in various parts of his works, as well the functions and period of appearance of the several teetli,* as their princijial diseases, ] and the plan of treating- them, both by manual operations and by dentrifices. Quod ad dentium dolores attinet, he observes, si *' corrosus fuerit dens, et movetur, eximatur ;| but we have no particular directions with respect to the plan of operating, nor indeed does any such appear to have been necessary, since the operation was undertaken only when the teeth were loose. In other cases, he applied to them the actual cautery ;1| the use of which, in this way, seems to have been mentioned first by Hippocrates, although the practice was pro- bably borrowed from the Egyptians, whose fond- ness for this remedy, in the form of heated iron, moxa, &c., is sufficiently well known. It is in the works of Hippocrates also, that we find the first mention of the plan of fixing the teeth with gold wire; although this practice also seems to have been prevalent before his time, * De carnibus. t De affectionibus, S. i. Coacae Prsesitionis, S. i. &c, X Ibid, il Ibid.$