“Wine is the best of all remedies; and it is in places where wine is wanting that one is in need of pharmaceutic remedies.”[24]
CHAPTER III.
DENTISTRY AMONG THE CHINESE.
For above 4000 years science and religion among the Chinese, as well as their customs, have remained quite unchanged. The inhabitants of the Celestial Empire can vaunt a most ancient civilization; which is, however, altogether stationary; neither has their medicine made any progress, and its actual state represents with sufficient exactness what it was in primitive ages.
In Europe, various works have been written about the medicine of the Chinese, one of the best being that of Dabry,[25] taken from the most celebrated medical books of China,[26] and which may be considered as a compendium of the medical science of this people.
In this work we find two chapters relating to our specialty: the first of these (p. 286) speaks of toothache, the second (p. 292) treats of all the other dental and gingival diseases.
The Chinese call the toothache ya-tong, and distinguish a great many varieties of the malady, that is:
1. Fong-je-tong. This kind of toothache is caused by sudden cold, and has the following characteristic symptoms: Red and swollen gums, which after a little time discharge purulent and fetid mucus; abundant salivation; acute pain; swelling of the cheek. It is to be cured with draughts, mouth washes, and various kinds of frictions.
We consider it useless to give the particulars of the various receipts, because Dabry hardly ever translates the names of the drugs of which they are compounded. These formulæ are therefore incomprehensible by most people.