In the following passage mention is made of a mouth wash against toothache, the basis of which is castoreum and pepper:
“In consequence of a violent toothache the wife of Aspasius had her cheeks swollen up; but on making use of a mouth wash of castoreum and pepper she found great relief.”[64]
A little after we find the practice of bleeding mentioned; and contemporarily an allusion to the use of alum—with regard to a painful swelling of the gums, that is to say, a gingivitis:
“Melisandrus suffered severe pain and swelling of the gums; he was bled in the arm. Egyptian alum, if used in this malady, arrests its development.”[65]
Toward the commencement of the sixth book the following observation is registered:
“Among those individuals whose heads are long-shaped, some have thick necks, strong members and bones; others have strongly arched palates, their teeth are disposed irregularly, crowding one on the other, and they are molested by headache and otorrhea.”[66]
While we should be tempted to attribute the knowledge of the relations between malformation of the skull, ogival palate, and bad arrangement of the teeth to quite modern studies, we are obliged to admit, and to our great surprise, that these relations were already noted, twenty-four centuries back, by the great physician of Cos.
In the seventh book on Epidemics, a case of scorbutus is described, where incense and a decoction of lentils proved useful against the lesions of the buccal cavity:
“... Large tubercles, of the size of grapes, had formed on the gums close to the teeth, black and livid, but not painful, except when the patient took food. For the mouth, incense powder mixed with some other ingredients proved useful. The internal use of the decoction of lentils also did good to the ulcers of the mouth.”[67]