_Pliny's Dentistry._--As your journal has become the repository of so many
novel and interesting _facts_, I trust that the following data will be
found acceptable to the readers of "N. & Q." Having had occasion, of late,
to look over the works of Pliny, I was struck with the extent to which this
ancient naturalist and philosopher has carried his researches on the above
subject; as, in some editions, the Index of the article DENTES occupies
several closely-printed columns. He recommends tooth-powder (_dentifricia_)
of hartshorn, pumice-stone, burnt nitre, _Lapis Arabus_, the ashes of
shells, as well as several ludicrous substances, in accordance with the
mystic prejudices of the age. Amongst the remedies for fixing (_firmare_)
teeth, he mentions _Inula_, _Acetum Scillinum_, _Radix Lapathi sativi_,
vinegar; and loose teeth are to be fixed by _Philidonia_, _Veratrum
nigrum_, and a variety of other remedies, amongst which some are most
rational, and tend to prove that more attention was paid to the
physiological (_hygeistic_) department relating to that portion of the
human body than we have been hitherto aware of, as even the most recent
works on Dentistry do not mention these facts.