The changes which take place in the alveolus, after the extraction of a tooth have not escaped the notice of Vesalius. He says that after an extraction the walls of the alveolus approach one another, and the cavity is gradually obliterated.
Aristotle had affirmed that men have a greater number of teeth than women. Vesalius declares this opinion absolutely false—although, after Aristotle, it has been repeated by many other ancient writers—and says that anyone can convince himself that the assertion of Aristotle is contrary to the truth, as it is possible for everybody to count his own teeth.
In spite of this, we find the above-mentioned error even in writers subsequent to Vesalius; for example, in Heurnius (professor at Leyden toward the end of the sixteenth century), who expresses an opinion that rarely do women have thirty-two teeth, like men.
We find but little in Vesalius concerning the development of the teeth. He, indeed, made some observations and researches on this point, but these, from their insufficiency, led him to quite mistaken conclusions. The teeth of children, he says, have imperfect, soft, and, as it were, medullary roots; and the part of the tooth which appears above the gums is united to the root, so to say, as a mere appendix, after the fall of which there grows from the root the permanent tooth. This error arose in the mind of Vesalius from observing that when children lose their milk teeth, these have the appearance of a kind of stump, as if the root had actually remained in the socket. Besides this, he had observed with what facility the milk teeth fall out; and he here calls to mind that, when about seven years old, he himself and his companions used to pluck out their loosened teeth, and especially the incisors, with their fingers, or with a thread tied around the tooth. The softness of the dental roots in children, the easy fall of the milk teeth, and the want of the lower part of the roots in these, must have raised the idea in his mind that the roots of the milk teeth remained in the socket, and that the upper part of the temporary teeth, instead of being a continuation of the root, was joined to this as a simple appendix, and in a very weak way, as though designed to remain in place for a limited length of time only.
In Vesalius[284] is found a dental terminology—Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic—which affords some interest. The incisors are called in Latin incisorii, risorii, quaterni, quadrupli; and the two middle incisors have been denominated by some authors duales. The canines are called in Greek kynodontes, which means the same as the Latin canini, dog’s teeth. In Latin they have been also denominated mordentes, and by some also risorii, a name which by others is given to the incisors, as we have already seen. The molars have also been called in Latin maxillares, paxillares, mensales, genuini.[285] But some authors give this last name only to the last molars, or wisdom teeth, dentes sensus et sapientiæ et intellectus. These teeth have also been called serotini (that is, tardy), ætatem complentes (that is, completing the age, the growth), and also, in barbaric Latin, cayseles or caysales, negugidi, etc.
In the rebellion against the authority of the ancients, Vesalius had a predecessor whose name, deservedly famous, may be recorded here. Paracelsus (born in 1493 at Maria-Einsiedeln, Switzerland), on being nominated, in 1527, Professor of Medicine and Surgery at Basle, inaugurated his lectures by burning in the presence of his audience, who were stunned by such temerity, the writings of Galen and Avicenna, just as Luther, seven years before, had burnt in the public square of Wittenberg the papal bulls and decretals. The sixteenth century, in its exuberance of intellectual life, was undoubtedly one of the grandest centuries in history; human thought in that glorious epoch shattered its chains, and declared its freedom both in matters of science and of religion.
Paracelsus, a man of powerful genius, but not well balanced in mind, of corrupt morals, and of an unlimited pride, had, notwithstanding these undeniable defects, the merit of beginning a healthy reform in the science and practice of medicine, by substituting the study of nature for the authority of the ancients and by giving a great importance to chemistry, both for the explanation of organic phenomena and for the cure of disease.
It is to be lamented that this man of genius did not contribute in any way to the progress of dentistry. His works have no importance for us. As a matter of mere curiosity we only record here that Paracelsus considered the too precocious development of the teeth as a great anomaly, and regarded as monsters those children who were born with teeth.[286]
Paracelcus.