24
lour, who said he would not detain me half a minute. He came—a friend I had not seen for years. He sympathized with me, while I briefly told how sadly I was afflicted.
‘My dear friend,' exclaimed he, ‘I can cure you in ten minutes.’
‘How? How?’ inquired I; 'do it in pity?’
‘Instantly,’ said he. ‘Betty,’ have you any alum?’
‘Yes.’
‘Bring it, and some common salt.”
They were produced ; my friend pulverized them, mixed them in equal quantities; then wet a small piece of cotton, causing the mixed powder to adhere, and placed it in my hollow tooth.
‘There,’ said he, ‘if that do not cure you, I will forfeit my head. You may tell this in Gath, and publish it in the streets of Aschalon; the remedy is infallible.'
It was as he predicted. On the introduction of the mixed alum and salt, I experienced a sensation of coldness, which gradually subsided, and with it the torment of the toothach.
Though I thus learnt something from my sufferings, and entertain a hope that what I learnt, being thus published, will be of service to my fellow creatures, I am far from believing that any universal remedy has yet been discovered for this afflicting malady. It would almost appear, indeed, that instead of there being any general cure for the toothach, every body would require to have his own cure; for though certain preparations have been found effectual in certain cases, nothing is more common than to find these fail when applied to others.
