502 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



to recognise its sensitiveness. To relieve dental pain he 

 recommended that a hole should be bored in the affected tooth, 

 and that by means of this orifice appropriate remedies should 

 be introduced. 



The ancient Etruscans appear to have been highly skilled in 

 dentistry, and many specimens have been found in tombs 

 in Etruria of gold dental bridges and similar appliances em- 

 ployed to replace lost teeth. In the villa of Pope Julius III. 

 in Rome, now used as an Etruscan Museum, is to be seen an 

 excellent specimen of a gold dental " bridge," in actual position, 

 in a skull which was found in an Etruscan tomb at Civita 

 Castellana, a town in Etruria formerly known as Falerii. (The 

 Etruscans are believed to have been partly of ancient Greek 

 origin, at any rate their civilisation was antecedent to that of 

 Rome.) 



Coming now to the days of ancient Rome, we know from 

 writings dating from the first century b.c. that toothache was 

 very rife, and we read of many strange remedies. For example, 

 Cornelius Celsus, a medical writer in the reign of Tiberius, 

 recommends the following treatment as a means to obtain relief 

 from toothache : " The patient should abstain entirely from 

 wine and at first even from food, afterwards he may partake of 

 soft food, but very sparingly lest he irritate his gums by 

 chewing." Meanwhile he must, by means of a sponge, steam 

 the affected part and apply, externally, a medicated pad of 

 wool. 



Celsus describes dental operations in detail, and gives a list 

 of the instruments used by dentists. 



(i) Ordinary tweezers, from which, in the course of cen- 

 turies, our modern dental forceps have been evolved. 



(2) The rhizagra, an instrument for the extraction of roots. 



(3) The vulsellum, for removing debris of bone or tooth. 



(4) The specillum, which was a sort of probe. 



(5) The cautery, which was simply a metal rod made hot and 

 applied where necessary. 



Pliny the elder, the famous Roman writer on natural history, 

 mentions many remedies for toothache. One of these, con- 

 sisting of a mixture of the burnt excreta of mice and the 

 dried liver of a lizard, was to be inserted in a hollow tooth. 

 Pliny was evidently of a somewhat heartless nature, for he 

 mentions casually the case of a man who, after having had 



