Bartholinus anatomy made from the precepts of his father, and from the observations of all modern anatomists, together with his own ... / published by Nich. Culpeper and Abdiah Cole.

Chap. XII. Of the Teeth in General.

THe Teeth are called DENTES as if you would say Edentes, Eaters, and by the Greeks odontes as it were edôuntes Eaters; and they are Bones properly so cal∣led, hard and solid, smooth and white, like other Bones.

They have some things peculiar which other bones have not, which neverthe∣less* 1.1 doth not exclude them from the number of Bones.

• 1. They are harder than other Bones, that they may bite and chew hard things; and they are little less harder tha Stones, nor can they easily be burnt in the Fire, and whereas in the Sarcophagus or Flesh∣eating Stone, the whole body is consumed in forty daies, the Teeth remain unimpaired▪ and therefore Tertullian writes that in them is the Seed of our future Resurrection.
• 2. The Teeth are naked without any Periosteum, least they should pain us when we chew.
• 3. Yet they have a Sense, but more of the first than of the second Qualities, and especially rather of what is cold than what is hot contrary to the Nature of flesh, ac∣cording to Hippocrates. and hence they are so an•• to be set on edg.
• But the whole Tooth doth not feel of it self, but the inner, softer and more* 1.2 marrowy part; which is covered over with an hard external part, which is not pained, neither by Fire, nor Iron, as in a Sword under the most hard rind of the Steel, an Irony marrow less hard lies within, and the Skin through the sensless Skars-skin doth feel, so the inner part of the Tooth feels through the out∣most, into which inner part being hollow, little soft Nerves enter and little cloathing Membranes. Hereupon a certain Nun at Padua causing a very long Tooth shee had above all the rest to be cut off to avoid the Deformi∣ty thereof, shee presently fell down into a Convulsion and Epileptick fit. Now in the part of her Tooth which was cut off, there appeared the tokens of a Nerve.
• 4. Hence, they receive Nerves into their Cavity which other bones do not.
• 5. They grow longer than any other of the Bones, al∣most all a mans life, because they are dayly worn, by biting and grinding; as

  Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo.

  The hardest Stone a dropping House-Eve hollows, Cause drop upon drop, drop after drop still follows, But not by force.

And look how much they wear away, so much are they still augmented▪ which hence appears; in that if any Tooth fall out and grow not again, the opposite Tooth grows so much the longer, as the empty space of the for∣mer Tooth comes to.

Fallopius considering the praemises, and how new Teeth are thought to breed, he collects that the formative fa∣culty remains alive in the Teeth to extream old age.

Helmont counts the matter of the Bone not to be meer∣ly boney, but as it were of a middle nature betwixt Bone and Stone; because the Teeth turn to Stone whatever kind of food sticks long to them, be it Bread, Flesh, Herbs, Fish, Apples, Beans, or Pease, &c. But there is no petrifica∣tion or turning to Stone, unless the things eaten be of a tartareous Nature, but only a drying, the moisture being consumed by the Spittle; nor are the Teeth made bigger by that addition, which somtimes is scraped off, somtimes turne to clammy filth.

The Teeth are bred in the Womb, after* 1.3 the Generation of the Jaw-bones, twelve in each Jaw, or a few more, as I shall speak hereafter touching their number, four Cutters, two Dog-teeth, six Grinders: which lie somwhat imperfect and concealed within the Jaws (for it is rare for an Infant to be born toothed) least the child as it sucks should hurt the Nipple. And therefore in an Abortion, or a young Infant, small teeth may be pulled out

They break out of the Gums sooner in Brutes (though Varro be otherwise minded as touching Horses) because they are sooner capable of solid meat; in mankind at the seventh month or later, after the Child is a year old: and the upper sooner than the lower, yet in some the lowest first, and among the rest,

The fore-teeth in the first place, because

• 1. They are most sharp.
• 2. They are less then the rest.
• 3. Because the Jaw-bone is there thinnest.
• 4. Because there is most need of them both to speak with and to cut and bite the meat.

And at that time when the Teeth* 1.4 of Infants shoot forth, Hippocrates tels us that Feavers, Convulsions, Fluxes of the Belly arise, especially when the Dog-teeeth come forth: because when the Teeth make their way through the Gums, they torment more than pricks in the Flesh.

These Teeth have a Substance boney, hard, and hollow where they break out, but in their hinder part they have a soft substance, covered with a thin and transparent Mem∣brane.

And about the seventh and fourteenth yeer, other Teeth are wont to break out (the* 1.5 former falling away) in both the Jaws ten, four Cutters, two Dog-teeth, and four Grinders. And the former fall out in the fourth, fift, and sixt year. because the holes grow wider, and therefore the Teeth being at that time soft, do grow loose and fall out. Nicephorus in his Interpreta∣tion of Dreams saies, that for a man to dream he looses a Tooth another comes in the Rome, betokens gain and un∣expected Joy. If their Teeth do not shed, the latter Teeth come out at new holes, the upper commonly on the outside, the lower on the inside, as there were new ranks of Teeth. More frequently they spring out on the sides and augment the number.

But these Teeth are not bred anew without the Womb: for then likewise* 1.6 Membranes, Nerves, Vessels and Liga∣ments might be bred anew: but the seeds of them lie within the Jaws. For Eustachius and Riolanus have observed some smaller Teeth at the back of the rest which fall out, a very thin partiti∣on being removed which is found between the two sorts of Teeth. But a rare case it is for Teeth to breed again, after many years and in old age. As Thuanus relates of a man that was an hundred yeer old: in our Fionia a man of an hundred and forty years of age, had new Teeth. Helmont saw an old Man and Woman of sixty three yeers of age, whose Teeth grew again with such pains as Chil∣dren have when breed they teeth, which was no token of their long living, for both of them died that yeer. Sir Francis Bacon hath the like Example touching an old Man.

But now let us speak of the Teeth in grown persons.

The Teeth are seated in the Compass of the two Jaw∣bones, in Mankind, shut up within his mouth; in a Boar they stick out, as also in the Whale-fish cal'd Narhual in our Greenland; which sends out an exceeding long wreathed Tooth, ••ut of the left side of his upper Jaw, which is commonly taken for the Unicorns horn, and is yet of great value among Noble Men and Princes.

In Magnitude they come short of the Teeth of other Animals, because of the smallness of Mans mouth. And in Mankind some have greater, others less.

They vary in Figure. In Man they are of a threefold figure: Cutters, Dog-teeth, and Grinders, as shall be said in the following Chapter; save that Fontanus obser∣ved in a certain Man, that they were all Grinders which he had. In Creatures that chew the Cud they are double; Cutters and Grinders. In Fishes they are in a manner all perfectly sharp, excepting one kind of Whale, which the Islanders call Springwall, whose teeth are blunt, but broad.

The Surface is smooth and even.

The Colour white, and shining, unless negligence, Age, or sickness hinder.

The Number is not the same in all Men, for to let pass rarities, viz. that some men are born with one continued tooth in their upper Jaw-bone (which they relate of Pyr∣rhus, and a certain Groenlander brought hither in the Kings Ships) also of a double and tripple row of teeth, such as I have seen in some Fishes, and such as Lewis the thirteenth King of France had, and which Solinus writes of Mantichora, and is known of the Lamia, which hath five ranks, strangely ordered, and among them exceeding sharp teeth, resembling the stones called Glossopetrae, and there∣fore Columna took the teeth of a Lamian turned to stone, to be the Glossopetrae or precious Stones of Malta so cal∣led, of which I have spoke elswhere. In a Sea-wolf, I have observed a double rank, the former of sharp teeth, the in∣ner of grinders, close joyned together, which possess the lower part of the Palate. A man hath ordinarily but one rank in each Jaw-bone, and twenty eight in all, somtimes thirty, in the upper Jaw sixteen, in the lower fourteen; but for the most part thirty two, sixteen in each Jaw.

But this number is seldom changed, save in the grin∣ders, which somtimes are on each side five, somtimes sour; otherwhiles five above, four beneath, or five on the right, and four on the left side, or contrarily.

A great number of teeth argues length* 1.7 of life, few teeth a short life, according to Galen and Hippocrates. And rightly. For the rarity and fewness of teeth is bad as a Sign and a Cause: for it argues want of matter, and the weakness of the formative faculty. As a Cause: because few teeth can∣not well prepare the meat, and so the first digestion is hurt, and consequently the second. But we must understand that this prediction holds for the most part, but not al∣waies, as Scaliger well disputes against Cardan in his 271. Exercitation. For Augustus who lived seventy six years, is said to have had thin, few, and scalie teeth; and so like∣wise Forestus who lived above eighty years.

Their Connexion is by way of Gomphosis, for they seem to be fixed in their holes as nails in a post. Also they are tied by strong Bands unto their nests, which bands stick to their roots; and then the Gums compass them, of which before.

The outer Substance is more solid and hard, not feeling; the inner is a little more soft, endued with sense, by reason of the neighborhood of a Nerve and Membrane, and hath in it a Cavity, larger in Children then Elder persons, and compassed about till they be seven years old, with a thin Scale like the Combs of Bees, and full of snotty matter; in grown persons the humor being dried up, it is dimini∣shed.

This Cavity is cloathed with a little Mem∣brane* 1.8 of exquisite Sense, which if it imbibes some Humor flowing from the Brain, ex∣tream Tooth-ach follows. In this begin Erosions, Putrefactions, and most painful Rottenness; and herein somtimes grow the smallest sort of worms, which exceedingly torment men.

Vessels are carried to this Cavity, by the holes of the Roots of the Teeth.

As Veins to carry back the blood after nutrition and continual augmentation. Which are not seen so appa∣rently in Mankind (as neither the Veins of the adnata tu∣nica of the Eyes) but they are manifestly seen in Oxen, and are gathered from the sprinkling of blood in the Ca∣vity.

Little Arteries to afford Natural Heat and Blood for Nutrition and Alteration. And therefore upon an Infla∣mation, a pulsative pain of the teeth is somtimes caused▪ which Galen experimented in himself. Hence much light∣ful, shineing blood, comes somtimes from a tooth that has an hole made in it, and somtimes so as to cause death.

Little Nerves tender and fine, are carried to them from the first pare, according as we reckon, which go through the Roots into the Cavity, where they are spred abroad within, and by small twigs mingled with a certain muci∣laginous Substance sound in the middle of the teeth.

The Use of the Teeth

• In the first and chiefest place, is to chew and grinde the meat. And therefore such as have lost their teeth are fain to content themselves with suppings; and therefore Ni∣cephorus reckons that it is bad to dream of a mans teeth fal∣ling out, and saies it signifies the loss of a Friend.
• 2. They serve to form the voice (and therefore Chil∣dren do not speak, till their mouths are full of teeth) es∣pecially the fore teeth which help the framing of some cer∣tain Letters. Hence those that have lost their teeth, can∣not pronounce some Letters, as for Example T. and R. in the speaking whereof, the tongue* 1.9 being widened, ••ought to rest upon the fore∣teeth. Also the loss of the grinders hurts the Explicati∣on or plain Expression of the Words, according to Galen,

• so that the Speech becomes slower, and less clear and ea∣sie. Let therefore such as have lost their teeth, procure artificial ones to be set in, and with a golden wire to be firmly fastned.
• 3. For Ornament. For such as want their teeth are thereby deformed.
• 4. Homer conceives the teeth are an edg to the tongue and Speech, to keep in a mans words, and prevent pra∣ting.
• 5. In Brutes they serve to fight withal, in which case a man uses his hands.
• 6. In the said Brutes, also to shew their Age. For the Age of an Horse is known, by looking into his Mouth, where before he is four years old that tooth to be seen which they term Gnomon, when he is four year old, there is another tooth seen with an hole in it that will hold a Pease, which every year grows less and less, till at eight years the tooth is filled up, becomes smooth, and no hole to be seen therein.

Notes

• * 1.1

  How the Teeth do differ from o∣ther Bones.
• * 1.2

  Which part of the Tooth feels.
• * 1.3

  The Teeth are bred in the Womb.
• * 1.4

  Why Children are sick of Teeth-bree∣ding.
• * 1.5

  Why and when young ones loose their Teeth.
• * 1.6

  Whether new Teeth are bred out of the womb?
• * 1.7

  Many teeth ar∣gue long life.
• * 1.8

  The Diseases and Pains of the Teeth, how caused?
• * 1.9

  Speech him.