The book, therefore, lacks importance from a dental point of view, except in the sense that it shows how little skilled in the cure of dental affections were the German surgeons of those days.
It is worthy of note that this author, also, speaks of anesthetic inhalations; he, however, only translates, almost to a word, what Guy de Chauliac says on this subject.
Toward the end of the fifteenth century and in the first half of the sixteenth there were published in German, by anonymous authors, some short translations and compilations on dental subjects, taken especially from Greek and Arabian authors.[275] Of these writings, the first one known, taken from Galen and Abulcasis, was printed at Basle in 1490; and another—one of the best—saw the light at Mayence in 1532. These works were perhaps due to intelligent barbers, or perhaps—and this seems to be the most probable—they were written, through the initiative of enterprising printers, by doctors and surgeons, who wished to remain unknown, on account of the special subject treated; for, owing to the fact that the diseases of the dental system were generally left in the hands of barbers and other unprofessional persons, the doctors and surgeons of those days would have been ashamed to interest themselves in such things.
Walter Hermann Ryff, of Strasburg, was born in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and died about 1570. He was a rather mediocre doctor and surgeon, and a man of the worst morals, so much so that many cities expelled him from their midst.[276] He wrote many medical works, in which, however, there is very little original matter. Their principal merit consists, perhaps, in the fact that they were written not in Latin, as then was universally customary, but rather in the vernacular of the author and in a popular style; so that Ryff may be looked upon as the first who endeavored to diffuse among the people useful medical and hygienic knowledge.
Among Ryff’s books there are two which are very important to us. One is his Major Surgery, and the other is a pamphlet entitled Useful Instruction on the Way to Keep Healthy, to Strengthen and Reinvigorate the Eyes and the Sight. With Further Instruction on the Way of Keeping the Mouth Fresh, the Teeth Clean, and the Gums Firm.[277]
Of these books, there now only exist some extremely rare copies; so much so that neither Albert von Haller nor Kurt and Wilhelm Sprengel, who rendered such great services to the history of surgery, ever had the pleasure of examining them. Dr. Geist-Jacobi has been more fortunate than they, and has therefore been able to give us some very interesting information about their contents.
The Major Surgery is a mere compilation which does not contain anything new of importance. It was published in part in 1545, and in part in 1572, after the death of the author. The work is illustrated with very beautiful wood engravings; and it is just this which gives the principal value to this book. Some of the illustrations contained in the first part of it—that is, in that published in 1545—represent dental instruments, notwithstanding dental surgery is not treated in this part of the book. The author gives notice that he will treat all that concerns dental affections in the latter part of this book, in a special chapter. Unfortunately, this chapter was never written, because death prevented Ryff from completing the second part of his work.
Pelican and dental forceps (Walter Hermann Ryff).