University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School - Mirror Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

Page 24 text:

THE MIRROR of him was made in gold, and after his death he was callled the God of Medicine. The greatest surgeon that ever lived, says Herodotus, was Hippocrates, who lived about 450 B. C. This genius was a distant relative of yEsculapius, and, like this great surgeon, was divinely skilled in the practice of medicine and surgery. At the time of the birth of Hippocrates medicine and surgery were entirely in the hands of the heathen priesthood, who knew little of medicine as a science and so thoroughly clothed the subject with superstition and mysteries that future generations still suffer the effect. Al- though himself the son of a priest-physician and inheriting all the superstition, and educated in the traditions of the priestly rites, he broke loose from former teachings and proclaimed to all the civilized world that medicine was based on inductive philosophy and disclosed at the risk of his life that the priestly system was a fraud and an imposition. He classified and described diseases, and with him medicine and surgery began their careers as sciences. When we consider the age in which he lived — 400 B. C. — and the diffiulties under which he studied medicine, we cannot fail to ad- mire the great advance he made. Those who studied general or dental surgery under Hippocrates were obliged to subscribe to what is known as the Hippocratic oath, which was as follows : I swear by Apollo, the physician, by sculapius, by Hygeia and Panaca, and by all the gods and goddesses, that to the best of my power and judgment I will faithfully observe this oath and ob- ligation. The master who has instructed me in this art I will esteem as my parents and supply, as occasion may require, with the com- forts and necessaries of life. His children I will regard as my own brothers, and if they desire to learn I will instruct them in the same art without any reward or obligation. The precepts, the ex- planations and whatever else belongs to the art, I will communi- cate to my own children, to the children of my master, to such other pupils as have subscribed to the physician ' s and surgeon ' s oath, and to no other persons. My patients shall be treated to the best of my power and judgment, in the most salutary manner, 18

Page 23 text:

THE MIRROR two superior cuspids and four incisors united by gold thread. Two of these incisors seemed to have belonged to another person and to have been placed there in order to replace the missing ones. This piece, which was found in one of the most ancient vaults, proves that the art of dentistry was pretty far advanced at Sidon. The rise of the Mohammedan empire, which influenced Europe so deeply both politically and intellectually, made its mark also in the history of medicine and surgery. Although the Arab thought more of his steed than of his wife, yet he did not fail to appreciate self and give time and attention to the pillars of the mouth, as he called the teeth. Among the archives of tradition in Arabia we are informed that the augur and physician Navius Aetius, as early as 300 A. D., discovered the foramina in the roots through which the nerves and vessels enter the pulp chamber, and for years subsequent to this discovery the Christian world was ignorant of this and other of his important finds. Arabians never cease boasting of Aetius, who, at one time, was a professor and tutor in the medical and dental departments of the celebrated Alex- andrian University. The custom of washing the mouth every morning, which is adopted by several nations, has become the sub- ject of a religious precept among the Arabians to make the little ablution with the face turned toward Mecca ; they rinse the mouth thrice and clean their teeth with a brush. This custom shows how highly the preservation of the teeth is esteemed by a people who formerly were forbidden, according to Menavius, to have a tooth extracted without permission from the chief. The Greeks, it is said, learned what the Egyptians knew, and, no doubt, the science of dental surgery emigrated from Egypt to Greece, as did nearly all knowledge. Homer, the great Greek sage and historian, tells us that sculapius, a surgeon who lived about 1250 B. C., used a narcotic to produce insensibility when performing minor operations, such at tooth-drawing. He, too, we are informed, was the first to teach the art of tooth purging and filling. He was thought of so l ighly by the Greeks that a statue 17

Page 25 text:

THE MIRROR without any injury or violence; neither will I be prevailed upon by another to administer pernicious physics. The Grecian custom of cremating the dead has caused the scarcity of dental specimens. What proof we have of their knowl- edge of dental prosthesis is found in the literature of these people. We will now bid the scholarly Grecians good-by and travel to the land of war — Italy — there to greet the model Roman. Al- though the Romans were constantly engaged in battle, yet some attention was paid to the finer arts. Like their immediate neigh- bors, the Grecians, after whom they copied, they made priests of the temples custodians of divine cure. The following, taken from an ancient work on mythological beliefs, gives a complete list of such saints and gods as the plebeians were obliged to give devotion in case of ordinary dental troubles : Saint Appollonia guarded against toothache; Saint Lucy guarded against sore tooth; Saint Anthony guarded against inflammation; Saint Ger- manus guarded against diseased eruption ; Saint Marcus guarded against neuralgia ; Saint Herbert guarded against poisoned teeth. The Roman priests also erected temples in memory of the great Grecian physician, sculapius, and worshiped him as a god of medicine. Among the voluminous writings of the Latin poets frequent reference is made to artificial teeth. The famous Mar- tial, who lived in the first century B. C., says that a Roman den- tist, Cascellius, is in the habit of fastening, as well as extracting, the teeth. To Lelius the same author says: You are not ashamed to purchase teeth and hair, and adds that the toothless mouth of gle was repaired with bone and ivory ; also that Galla, more refined, removed her artificial teeth during the night. An eminent EngHsh scholar adds : Cicero, when speak- ing of a law passed to check the unnecessary expense of funerals, says : ' Neve aurum addito, ' etc. ; that is. Add no gold to the funeral ofiferings, but whosoever has his teeth bound with gold ' suevi auro- dentes vincti, ' let it be no evasion of the law to bury or burn him without it. The same authority continues, saying: Any mechanical den- 19