Among the Germans, as in other nations, the first to practise the healing art were priests, priestesses, and wise women. To cure disease they used partly empirical remedies, and partly witchcraft and superstitious means of every kind. Thus, to facilitate dentition, it was thought an excellent thing to pass a thread through the eyes of a mouse and then to tie the blood-covered thread around the neck of the child. It was held, besides—and this prejudice has left even until now some traces—that the putting of the milk teeth, when they fall out, into the nest of a mouse assures the cutting of new teeth.
We must here mention, with regard to the origin of dentistry among the Germans, a very important fact related by Joseph Linderer,[271] a fact which shows that even among the ancient Germans recourse was had to the application of artificial teeth.
We here reproduce the very words of the said author, translated literally:
“Being by chance a few years ago at Dresden and visiting the Museum of Antiquities, my attention was attracted, in the last room, to two osseous pieces, which with other objects were enclosed in a glass case, with the written inscriptions: Comb-shaped osseous pieces, found in ancient German urns. As soon as I had observed them, I saw at once that they were artificial teeth; but as I had to be contented with examining them through the glass of the case, it was not possible for me to decide whether these pieces were really of bone, as they seemed to be, or of another substance. Taking into account their antiquity, their whiteness is very notable. Every piece is composed, if I remember rightly, of five teeth, that is, of a canine and four incisors; the chief difference of these pieces from the prosthetic pieces in ivory still in use (the author is writing in 1848) consists in this, that the pieces of which I speak have not at all a broad base, designed to rest on the gums, the base having instead the same thickness as the rest. The five teeth are well separated from one another. Besides, the canine makes the proper angle with the incisors, and at each side of the piece is found, in a convenient place, a hole, which shows that these teeth were fastened to those of the subject by means of a metallic or other kind of thread. As the above-described pieces are white, we must infer that they were removed from the mouth of the respective individuals before the body was burnt, and afterward put into the urn with the ashes, just as they used to put in coins, bits of arrows, and the like.”
For many centuries dental surgery—which, however, was still in a very primitive state—was practised in Germany, as in many other countries, principally by barbers. These in certain places, and at certain periods, formed corporate bodies, whose members were legally authorized to extract teeth and to practise minor surgery in general. But besides barbers, there were various kinds of individuals, unfurnished with any authorization—tooth-drawers, charlatans, wandering story-tellers, necromancers, Jews, and even hangmen—who invaded the field of medical practice, in spite of its being forbidden them, except in fairs, to administer medicaments and to perform surgical operations.[272]
In 1460 there appeared in Germany a book on Surgery by Heinrich von Pfolsprundt, Knight of the Teutonic Order.[273] The author had acquired great experience as surgeon in the military expeditions of his order, and we see from his book that he was very skilled in the cure of wounds and fractures. On the other hand, he shows himself hostile to every bloody operation with the exception of rhinoplast. Pains of the teeth and gums were cured by him by means of beverages.[274]
Title page of Zahnarzneybuchlein.
[The accompanying reproduction of the title page and two text pages from an edition of Zahnarzneybuchlein, printed by Michael Blum, in Leipzig, 1530, and translated below, is of interest in connection with the history of the use of gold-foil as a filling material, in that a marginal note refers to Mesue as the author from whom the three methods of treating caries has been derived, one of these methods being the filling of the carious cavity with gold-foil.