Chapter XXIX: Cure of teeth affected with pain from humidity.
Chapter XXXI: Cure of teeth affected by pain from dryness, according to Adamantius the sophist.
Chapter XXXII: Cure of teeth affected by pain from heat and humidity.
Chapter XXXIII: Cure of decayed teeth, according to Galen.
It appears very clear, therefore, from the great analogy existing between the headings of all the above-mentioned chapters, that the titles referred to by Geist-Jacobi have not at all the historical importance and significance that he attributes to them, and that the same have been formulated by Ætius himself. To argue from such titles that Adamantius was the author of a book on dentistry is not only inadmissible, for all the reasons already given, but also because if it were allowable to reason with such lightness, it might also be stated—by arguing from the title of Chapter XXXIII—that Galen was the author of a monograph on the treatment of dental caries; a thing which is absolutely untrue. Consequently, the beginning of odontologic literature cannot be traced back to Adamantius, but, as Dr. Geist-Jacobi would have it, to an author much less ancient, that is, to Walter Hermann Ryff, or, if it is preferred, even to the anonymous writers of the odontologic compilations which appeared in Germany at the end of the fifteenth century.
Andreas Vesalius. We must now speak of Andreas Vesalius, an extraordinary man, who by his genius infused new life into medical science, and who, although he gave but little attention to dental matters, yet fully deserves a place of honor in the history of dentistry; for this, like every other branch of medicine, received great advantage from his reforming work, which broke down forever the authority of Galen, thus freeing the minds of medical men from an enslavement which made every real progress impossible.
Andreas Vesalius was born at Brussels, December 31, 1514. He studied at Louvain and then at Paris, where at that time great scientists taught, and among others the celebrated anatomist Jacques Dubois, generally known by the Latinized name of Sylvius.[281] The latter, a great admirer of Galen, whose anatomical writings served as texts for his lectures, became jealous of the young Belgian student, who was his assistant, and who gave undoubted proofs of great genius, and of extraordinary passion in anatomical research. Vesalius often defied the greatest dangers in order to obtain corpses either from the cemetery of the Innocents or from the scaffold at Montfaucon. He soon surpassed his most illustrious masters, and at only twenty-five years of age published splendid anatomical plates, which astonished the learned. He acquired also great renown as surgeon, and in this capacity he followed the army of Charles V in one of his wars against France. After having been professor of anatomy in the celebrated University of Louvain (Belgium), he was invited by the Venetian Republic to teach in the University of Padua, which, through him, became the first anatomical school in Europe. Yielding to the requests of the magistrates of Bologna and Pisa, he also taught in those famous universities, before immense audiences.
Andreas Vesalius.
Before Vesalius, Galen’s anatomy had served as the constant basis for the teaching of this science. Although even from the end of the fifteenth century dead bodies were dissected in all the principal universities, the teachers of anatomy always conformed, in their descriptions, to those of Galen, so that the authority of this master, held infallible, prevailed even over the reality of facts.