Printed in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases” as “—— (to fasten)” under “Teeth, (to draw without pain)” (the dash stands for the heading above it, or its first word); shown here as “Teeth (to fasten)”.
Modern literature has not yet been searched for this heading’s claims: it comes only from the 1850 index and has no search words yet.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
Loose teeth made firm, with sore gums; the one sentence that says so is a gargle. Bistort’s sentence is about the pain of a hollow tooth, filed here by the index. The “palate … fallen down” reads as the soft palate or uvula hanging (our reading; the sentence does not say which).
What the entries treat
Three claims: two with a sentence, one from the index alone. Wild Tansy boiled in vinegar with honey and alum, gargled, “fastens loose teeth, helps the gums that are sore, and settles the palate of the mouth in its place, when it is fallen down”; Bistort root with pellitory of Spain and burnt alum, in a paste “put into a hollow tooth, or held between the teeth”, “stays the defluction of rheum upon them which causes pains”. “Mastich” is an index name the book has no herbal entry for.
Today’s words
loose teeth; gum disease (periodontitis); sore gums; receding gums — a broad match: the heading covers more than this, or several modern things.
How it reads today
“Fasten” is the old aim: a loose tooth was to be tightened. Today the gums, not the teeth, are where a loose tooth is looked at, and the sentence’s own “gums that are sore” points the same way (our reading); a hollow tooth is decay. Mastic, the index name with no entry, is the resin of the Mediterranean tree Pistacia lentiscus, named from the Greek for “to chew”, which is what was done with it.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “mastic” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Ancient Greek μαστίχη, from μαστιχάω “to chew”; the resin of Pistacia lentiscus, “A hard, brittle, aromatic and transparent resin produced by this tree”, used among other things for chewing gum; another sense, the tree itself, “An evergreen shrub or small tree, Pistacia lentiscus (mastic tree), native to the Mediterranean”; “mastich” listed as an alternative form; Earl of Sandwich 1799, “a very rich gum, made use of in medicines”. Wiktionary, s.v. “rheum” (accessed 2026-10-28): “Thin or watery discharge of mucus or serum, especially from the eyes or nose, formerly thought to cause disease”.
ThinkDeep333, 2026-10-28 · draft, not yet checked. Offered beside Culpeper’s heading, never in its place; nothing here says whether a plant works.
Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.
3 claims: 2 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone
The root thereof, with pelitory of Spain and burnt alum, of each a little quantity, beaten small and into paste with some honey, and a little piece thereof put into a hollow tooth, or held between the teeth, if there be no hollowness in them, stays the defluction of rheum upon them which causes pains, and helps to cleanse the head, and void much offensive water.
The same boiled in vinegar, with honey and allum, and gargled in the mouth, eases the pains of the tooth-ache, fastens loose teeth, helps the gums that are sore, and settles the palate of the mouth in its place, when it is fallen down.