Fig. III. Another such seed, natural size, with the pith being driven out in bow-shape.
Figs. IV and V. Slightly magnified supposed entrails of the tooth worms, actually the inner basis substance for the development of the seed lobes.
Fig. VI. Portion of the skin and driven out supposed entrails of the tooth worms, strongly magnified: (aa) skin still attached; (b) supposed entrails.
Fig. VII. Seed same as Fig. II, magnified: (a) external pellicle; (b) seed bud.
Fig. VIII. Seed of Fig. III, magnified: (aa) external pellicle; (b) node; (c) seed bud driven out in bow-shape.
Figs. IX, X, and XI. Three kinds of supposed tooth worms, magnified; the lettering corresponds in all three: (a) head; (b) brown spot or mouth; (c) body; (d) apparent opening or anus; (ee) single or double tail; (ff) brown spot of the tail; also an apparent opening.
Fig. XII. Representation of the utensils and the mode in which they are arranged during the application of the supposed remedy against tooth worms: (a) earthen pot; (b) opening visible on one side; (c) opening in the bottom; (dd) iron passing through the two side openings, on which the wax balls (containing henbane seeds) are laid inside the pot; (e) smoke arising through the opening in the top, which is directed into the mouth; (ff) bowl of water in which the pot is set, into which the supposed worms fall and in which they are found after the cure.
It would seem not at all improbable that the inhalation of vapors arising from heated henbane seeds might in some cases, e.g., of odontalgia from pulpitis, produce a sedative effect by the action of the hyoscyamine given off. Assuming that the method possessed even a slight therapeutic value, that factor in connection with the apparently tangible evidence of the existence of tooth worms which it afforded to the ignorant, makes the method a most interesting example of the way in which superstition and ignorance about medical matters are kept alive and sustained by a very slight increment of truth.
Another interesting reference to the use of henbane seeds for the cure of toothache by fumigation as found in an old Saxon manuscript of the ninth or tenth century, a translation of which is published in Leechdoms, Worthcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, vol. ii, p. 51, a collection of documents illustrating the history of science in England before the Norman conquest, published under direction of the Master of the Rolls. The reference is as follows:
“For tooth wark, if a worm eat the tooth, take an old holly leaf and one of the lower umbels of hartwort and the upward part of sage, boil two doles (that is, two of worts to one of water) in water, pour into a bowl and yawn over it, then the worms shall fall into the bowl. If a worm eat the teeth, take holly rind over a year old, and root of Carline thistle, boil in so hot water! Hold in the mouth as hot as thou hottest may. For tooth worms, take acorn meal and henbane seed and wax, of all equally much, mingle these together, work into a wax candle and burn it, let it reek into the mouth, put a black cloth under, then will the worms fall on it.”—E. C. K.]