describes scrapers and dental forceps for teeth cleaning 

 and extraction (figs. 10, 11) and brings in a few points 

 of historical interest.^* He warns of the common error 

 of extracting the adjacent healthy tooth instead of the 

 ailing one due to the patient's sense deception. For a 

 gargle he prescribes salt water, vinegar, and wine 

 (sharab). To stop hemorrhage he used blue vitriol 

 (al-zaj) — copper sulfate in our modern terminology. 



In chapter 33 al-ZahrawI discusses bridge-making 

 for the consolidation of shaky teeth (fig. 12). He 

 prefers the use of stable gold over silver which, he says, 

 putrifies and rots in a short time. In a rational ap- 

 proach, he also suggests that the fallen tooth itself, or 

 a similar one shaped out of a cow's bone, be installed 

 and connected with adjacent, stable teeth by a bridge. 



Now, turning to chapter 36, we find al-Zahrawi 

 describing a knife-thin tongue depressor (fig. 13) that 

 he used to facilitate the examination of inflamed 

 tonsils and other swellings of the throat; it was made 

 of silver or copper. And in chapter 37 (chapter 34 

 in Bes. 503), he describes the excision of an inflamed 

 uvula by surgery. In the same chapter, he also men- 

 tions the use of instruments made of steel. Of 

 pharmaceutical interest is the following free translation 

 of the formula he prescribes "as a milder treatment 

 by fumigation ... to be resorted to only when the 

 swelling is subsiding": ^^ 



Take pennyroyal [Mentha pulegium Linn.], absinthe 

 [Artemisia maritima Linn.], thyme, rue, hyssop, camomile, 

 abrotanum [Artemisia abrotanum Linn.], and other similar 

 herbs. Put all in a casserole and cover them with vinegar. 

 Then close tightly with clay [lutum-sapientiae] — except for a 

 small hole in the middle of the cover — and boil. Connect 

 one end of a hollowed instrument, a crude form of an 

 inhaler [fig. 14], with the hole in the cover and insert the 

 other end, which contains the nozzle, into the patient's 

 mouth, allowing the vapor to rise up to the uvula. And 

 if you are not able to secure this instrument, take a straw 

 and attach its end to an egg-shell. The egg-shell will 

 prevent burns in the patient's mouth that might be caused 

 by the heated vapor. 



'* It is regrettable that Franz Rosenthal in his fine article 

 "Bibliographical Notes on Medieval Muslim Dentistry" 

 (Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1960, vol. 34, pp. 52-60) 

 failed to refer to this or any other section of al-Zahrawi's work. 



25 Bes. 502, fol. 538. See also Channing, Albucasis, pp. 206-208. 

 For the identification of the drugs and their botanical origins 

 the author of the present paper consulted H. P. J. Renaud and 

 Georges S. Colin, Tuhfat al-Ahbdb, Glossaire de la Matiere 

 Medicate Marocaine, Paris, 1934, pp. 133, 143, 193-194, and 

 Max Meyerhof, Un Glossaire de Matihe Medicale Compose par 

 Maimonide, Cairo, 1940, pp. 168-169. 







ex argentp vel ex jere conficias j fit fubtile ficuc cukelius -, cum etenim 

 ops ejus lingua deprimicur. tumor manifeftus tibi reddetur, inquc 

 % ilium cadet vlfus tuus. Sumas adeoque hamum et in Amygdalam 



i...i 



Figure 13. — Metal tongue depressor. Top, 

 from original Arabic manuscript (Ali 2854), 

 courtesy Siileymaniye Umumi Kiitiiphanesi 

 Miidiirliigii. Bottom, from Channing, Albu- 



-\i^i>ti j»\j>y ,\ "iX^ >'A^ sj^t (>*ii 



jlJi^i^ ki^^ i.O^'^.ijsliliiJiiliij^j 



antrrfjdc in medio ollf fcnamoi fop<rqno<l compona/ 



<: 



j^^ 



D. 



fiatexirsitOtmiac.TlntnminatrnTmtitaeinqaatft 

 Srvnonmi fncsfnfimH janccafconiarrapoi adnolam 

 roper canolam ooiwf obfrarmir mn la m u!(D5. odndf iff ' 

 r» IbjKTlpfommoUorime oonf t arffraf .ft -.aDt ne faoaa 



Figure 14. — Crude form of an inhaler. Top, 

 from original Arabic manuscript (Tiib. MS. 

 91), courtesy Universitatsbibliothek Tub- 

 ingen. Bottom, from Argellata 1 53 1 , courtesy 

 National Library of Medicine. 



Al-Zahrawi repeats in chapter 53, on cancer, what 

 Greek physicians had said earlier, that cancer could 

 be removed by surgery only at its first stage and when 

 found in a removable part of the body, such as the 



90 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



