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.

2. Fong-lan-tong. This kind of toothache is also caused by cold. The pain is very great, but the gums are neither red nor swollen.

3. Ye-tong. Is also produced by chill. The gums are red and swollen; there is no discharge of mucus; great pain, which is aggravated by cold liquids. If the malady lasts for some time, the gums end by becoming black, and the teeth are loosened; the pain becomes more intense in spitting. In this stage of the malady the sufferer no longer fears cold drinks, but rather desires them, to soothe the pain. The cure varies according to whether the malady be of recent or of old date; it consists in the use of internal remedies (pills, potions), or of frictions on the part where the pain is situated.

4. Han-tong. This is also owing to the action of the cold. Pains in the cheek and forehead proceeding from the teeth; no diseased condition either of the gums or of the alveoli.

5. Tou-tan-tong. Violent cough and toothache at the same time; difficulty in masticating.

6. Yn-hiue-tong. The gums are pale, or violet-red, hard and lumpy, sometimes bleeding; the toothache is continuous. Among the numerous remedies recommended against this malady (mouth washes, frictions, draughts, pills), one particularly deserves mention: it is the urine of a child used as a mouth wash.

7. Tchong-che-tong. Pain in the teeth after mastication; there is also sometimes excoriation of the gums; flow of purulent mucus mixed with blood; bad-smelling breath; the tooth falls; it is decayed, and one can perfectly well distinguish a small hole; the root is unsound; in extracting the tooth one sometimes brings away together with it a little white worm, with a black spot on the head, which can be distinguished by the aid of a magnifying glass. A remedy must immediately be administered to destroy these worms, otherwise the patient runs the risk of having his other teeth attacked in the same manner, and of their falling out. The remedies against this affection are most numerous, and belong for the most part to the oftentimes cited categories. One of them presents a certain interest, its basis being arsenic.

In Dabry’s book it is described in the following manner: “Arsenic (gr. 1.80), houang-tan (gr. 3.60); pulverize, mix with water, and with a part of the mass form a small pill, which put close to the aching tooth or into the ear, if afraid of the arsenic; then sleep. Cure certain.”

8. Toothache, the effect of general weakness, following principally on abuse of coition. It is to be cured by the use of internal medicine, or by local remedies to be rubbed on the painful spot. Some of the medicaments registered in this paragraph have reference to the special case, in which the teeth are loosened through excess of coition. Among others there is a prescription for a dentifrice powder for strengthening the teeth, to be used every morning.

9. Toothache following on a blow. It is to be cured by using a certain dentifrice powder, composed of six ingredients. Another medicament consists in heating about an ounce and one-half of silver in some recipient, and then pouring wine upon it, and rinsing the mouth with it.

Besides these nine kinds of toothache, the Chinese doctors recognized a peculiar morbid condition of the teeth and their surrounding parts, which is thus described in Dabry’s book:

“It sometimes occurs, after recovery from illness, that convalescents, in order to acquire strength, drink too great a quantity of wine; and that this after a certain time produces a beginning of inflammation of the stomach. In such cases the teeth often fall out, the breath becomes fetid, and if the patient eats hot food, the empty alveoli as well as the cheeks are painful.”

Various internal medicaments and dentifrice powders are prescribed for combating this morbid condition. One of these latter includes a great number of ingredients in its composition; among others, the bones of mice.

Mention is also made of certain remedies, to which recourse may be had at times, for allaying violent dental pains, of whatsoever kind, or whatever be the cause that occasions them.

One of these remedies is composed of different substances (among them, garlic and saltpetre), to be pulverized and made into pills. If the pain be on the left side, one introduces one of the pills into the right ear, and vice versa.

The formula is also given for a very complicated medicated powder, to be snuffed up in the left nostril if the person suffering from toothache be a man; in the right if a woman.

Another powder is to be smelt with the right nostril or with the left, corresponding to the side on which the pain is located.

Abscesses and fistulæ of the gums are spoken of as follows:

“It sometimes occurs that an abscess forms in some one point of the gum; this communicates great pain to the tooth near it; the abscess is white, with discharge of purulent matter.” The treatment consists in the use of different medicated powders, to be rubbed on the affected part. Two of the powders contain musk, besides several other ingredients. A lotion is also prescribed.

In the next chapter the following affections are described:

1. Ya-heou. Gums are red, soft, and swollen, and a fetid and purulent matter exudes from them; the teeth are not painful; if the gums are lanced, blood of a pale red color flows from them in abundance. This malady is to be treated with various internal medicines and sometimes with scarification.

2. Ja-suen. Gums swollen; little by little they are corroded and destroyed by ulceration, which leaves the roots of the teeth bared; the patient has an aversion for hot food; continued pain in the teeth; discharge of purulent and fetid mucus; by the slightest exposure to cold the pain becomes very violent. This affection is to be combated with internal remedies and local treatment (frictions with medicated powders; application of an ointment of very complicated preparation).

3. Tchuen-ya-kan. The gums are painful for a few days; apparition of the root of the tooth; absence of ulceration. Children of five or six years of age are frequently exposed to this malady. The best means of cure consists in the extraction of the tooth. There are, besides, various internal and external remedies prescribed. One of these latter contains verdigris and three other ingredients. Among those to be used internally there is a decoction prepared with twelve different drugs, two of which are mint and rhubarb. The quantity of rhubarb is about seven and one-half grams; therefore, this prescription is certainly intended to act as a purgative.

4. Ya-ting. The right or left gum suddenly swells; a tumor forms of about the size of a grain of sorgo; in the beginning it is red, afterward black; severe pain in the cheek and neck; itching in the cheek; the tumor afterward bursts, giving exit to blood, and becomes black; it ought to be pricked directly (before it opens of itself) with a silver needle; blood of a violet color will flow from it, which should be left free course until it regains its ordinary color. The sufferer has at the same time pains in the stomach, great thirst, abdominal pains, and sometimes even delirium.

5. Ya-jong. Gums swollen and painful, abscess, fever, swollen cheeks; great thirst, and vomiting of a liquid kind; dejections dry. The treatment consists in the methodical use of certain medicines to be used internally, among which is rhubarb. If one neglects to make use of this treatment, an ulceration sets in with discharge of a purulent and sanguine mucus; it is then necessary to rub the part with a medicinal substance called by the Chinese, ping-pang-san. Should the tooth be somewhat loose, it ought to be extracted and the gum rubbed again with the substance just now named.

6. Tso-ma-ya-kan. An illness common to children after the smallpox; ulceration of the gums, which...