The dental instruments represented in his Major Surgery are many in number. Among them, first of all, are found the fourteen dental scrapers of Abulcasis, then the “duck-bill”—designed for the extraction of dental roots and broken teeth—various kinds of pelican (Fig. [59] A), the “common dental forceps” (Fig. [59] B), the “goat’s foot,” and many other kinds of elevators, among which, observes Geist-Jacobi, may be seen instruments even now in use, and even some which are said to have been recently invented.
Ryff’s other book is especially noteworthy because, as we have already mentioned, it treats, for the first time, of dental matters, independently of general medicine and surgery. This pamphlet, printed at Würzburg about the year 1544, is made up of sixty-one pages, and is divided into three parts, the first of which is dedicated to the eyes, the second to the teeth, and the third to the first dentition. It is written in popular style, and the author certainly intended it for the instruction of the public, and not for professional men; so true is this, that in it he does not speak of the technical part of the extraction of teeth, or of gold filling—a method already known for a long time—or of dental prosthesis.
The first part, relative to diseases of the eyes and the manner of curing them, has no importance for us. The second part begins with the following paragraph:
“The eyes and the teeth have an extraordinary affinity or reciprocal relation to one another, by which they very easily communicate to each other their defects and diseases, so that the one cannot be perfectly healthy without the other being so too.”[278]
This last statement is absolutely false, as a disease of the eyes may very well exist with a perfect condition of the teeth, and vice versa. However, Ryff has the merit of being, perhaps, the first who has noted the undeniable relation which exists between the dental and ocular affections.
After a rapid glance at the anatomy and physiology of the teeth, the author enumerates the causes of dental disease, which, according to him, are principally heat, cold, the gathering of humors, and traumatic actions.
The prophylaxis of dental diseases is beyond any doubt one of the best parts of the book; however, the ten rules counselled by Ryff for keeping the teeth healthy—rules which Dr. Geist-Jacobi has made known to us in full—are reproduced, almost to a word, from Giovanni d’Arcoli’s work; therefore, the author has no other merit than that of having translated them into the vulgar tongue, thus diffusing the knowledge of useful precepts for preventing dental diseases. We refrain from reproducing the aforesaid rules here, as they are, with slight variations, identical with those which we gave when speaking of Arculanus.
Nor can any credit be given to Ryff for the rules which he gives in regard to the diagnosis of dental pains, as this part of his work is also taken wholly from the Italian author just mentioned.
After these diagnostic rules Ryff, continuing to translate from the book of Giovanni d’Arcoli, adds:
“If the pain comes from the gums, extraction is of no use; if it comes from the tooth, extraction makes it cease; when, lastly, it is in the nerve, sometimes extraction removes it, and sometimes it does not, according as the matter obtains or not a free exit.”