It would appear that the author is here describing a prosthetic method, which he had never practised himself; and this results from the fact of his advising the perforation of the natural teeth for the passage of the silver wire destined to keep the prosthetic piece in its place. Evidently desiring to describe the mode practised by the specialists of those days for fixing artificial teeth, he erroneously imagines that the metal thread was passed through the holes drilled in the natural teeth; this would have been impossible, first, because of the atrocious pain due to the sensibility of the dentine and of the dental pulp, and then because of the pathological consequences to which the perforation of the teeth would have given rise. We may, therefore, surely hold that Purmann is simply describing, and not even accurately, a prosthetic method already in use among the specialists of that period.
On examination of the passage cited above—which, however, is not so clear as might be desired—it would appear that the models of which the author speaks were most probably quite different from those in use now. It is almost certain that the specialists of those days first made a sketch of the prosthetic part to be constructed, using for the purpose a piece of wax which they partly modelled with the hand and partly carved; and after having tried on this model until it fitted perfectly in the mouth, and was in every way satisfactory, they probably passed it on to a craftsman to make an exact reproduction of it in bone or ivory.
In the year 1632 a little book was published in Naples, having for its title, Nuova et utilissima prattica di tutto quello ch’al diligente Barbiero s’appartiene; composta per Cintio d’Amato.[378] This pamphlet was reprinted in Venice in 1669, and again in Naples in 1671. We here make mention of it, not for any special importance which it really has as regards the development of the dental art, but because of its being most probably the first book in the Italian language in which dental matters are spoken of independently of general medicine and surgery.
Tommaso Antonio Riccio. The edition of 1671 was published under the supervision of Tommaso Antonio Riccio, who was for many years a disciple of Cintio d’Amato, and who greatly eulogizes his master and praises his work. He expresses himself in the following bombastic manner: “This book, the offspring of Master Cintio d’Amato, excellent in the Barber’s Art, ought to find a place in the bosom of Eternity; because by reason of its having been twice given to the light, it has proved its worthiness to live forever in the memory of men, gaining for itself, by its excellence, immortal glory before all such as are practised in the Art.”
The book—which consists of about one hundred and eighty pages, and is illustrated by several admirable engravings—contains, among other things, two pages of verses, written by various authors, viz., by Cintio d’Amato himself, by Giovan Battista Bergazzano, also a barber, and by others. The greater part of these verses are in praise of the two doctors and Martyrs in Christ, Cosmos and Damianus, special protectors of the Art and of the author.
The verses of Cintio d’Amato reveal the possession of a literary and poetic culture above the ordinary, in spite of his being only a master barber. As to his book, it may be considered, for the time in which it was written, as an excellent treatise on so-called minor surgery. The author expounds, in a few chapters, the anatomical notions relating to bleeding; speaks at great length of this operation and of everything concerning it; refers with much detail to all pertaining to the use of leeches, cupping, scarification, cauteries, issues, blistering, primary treatment of the wounded, nursing of the sick, etc.; at the end of the book there is also a long chapter on the embalming of corpses.
As regards the treatment of the teeth and gums the author dedicates six chapters thereto, entitled, respectively: “On the relaxation of the gums” (Chapter XXXVII); “Preparation for strengthening the gums and making the teeth firm” (Chapter XXXVIII); “On tartar and spots on the teeth” (Chapter XXXIX); “Another preparation for whitening and preserving the teeth” (Chapter XL); “Mode of burning hart’s horn, very necessary in preparations for the teeth” (Chapter XLVII); “‘Water of salt,’ which makes the teeth white and is also good for ulcers of the gums” (Chapter XLIX).
Evidently Cintio d’Amato treats of dental matters only within extremely restricted limits. He tells us nothing with regard to the treatment of toothache, nothing about caries, about prosthesis, and, what is still more remarkable, he does not allude even in passing to the extraction of teeth. Now, if in a book treating of all that which appertains to the diligent barber, the most important dental subjects are passed over in silence, this shows that, contrary to the generally diffused opinion of today, the dental art was not at that time (at least not in Italy) exclusively, or even in great part, in the hands of the barber. Even at that time there must have been dental specialists, and the proof of this may be found in d’Amato’s book itself, in the chapter entitled “Necessity and Origin of the Barber’s Art.”[379] The author, after having spoken of the divisions which the practice of the medical art had undergone from the most remote times, and after having alluded to the great number of parts into which Medicine was divided in the time of Galen, adds: “Which may also be seen in our own times, for as many as are the members of the human body, so many are nowadays the various kinds of doctors and of medicines. Some are for the teeth, some are for the ears, some for sexual maladies, others are ordinary doctors, others cure cataracts, others ruptures and stone, some make new ears, lips, noses, and others remedy harelips.”
As, under the generic name of doctors, Cintio d’Amato also comprises surgeons, it results from the above passage that in his time, that is, in the seventeenth century, there were surgeons who dedicated themselves specially to the treatment of the teeth; there were, in fact, dentists; and even admitting that the greater number of these were no better than simple tooth-pullers, this cannot be true of them all indiscriminately. Cintio d’Amato’s book demonstrates in the most vivid manner that even among the barber and phlebotomist class, that is, among the practitioners of minor surgery, there were, at that time, men of considerable culture. This ought to hold good with still greater reason concerning surgeons, whose professional level was certainly superior to that of barbers;[380] and as dentists belonged to the class of surgeons (whence the denomination still in use of “surgeon-dentist”), it is but natural to admit that besides the ignorant tooth-puller there were even then more or less cultured dentists well capable of treating dental diseases and performing dental operations within the limits permitted by the knowledge of the times.
The six chapters in which Cintio d’Amato speaks of matters referring to the teeth do not contain anything whatever of real importance; notwithstanding this, we will here refer to the beginning of Chapter XXXIX, treating “Of tartar and spots on the teeth,” because it is of some historical interest: