ANCIENT AND MODERN DENTISTRY 503 



a tooth stopped with wax and asafcetida, promptly committed 

 suicide! 



Many references to artificial teeth are made by the poet 

 Martial in his epigrams written about a.d. 80. In referring to 

 an old lady, he says, " She lays down her teeth at night just as 

 she lay down her silken robes," and again referring to another 

 he says, " She affects reality by wearing false teeth made of 

 bone and Indian ivory." Another Roman writer, Scribonius 

 Longus, tells us that the tooth-paste of Messalina was composed 

 of calcined stag's horn, mastic, and sal-ammoniac. It will be 

 remembered that Messalina was the notorious wife of the 

 Emperor Claudius. 



Toothpicks were in use in these days and were known as 

 " dentiscalpia." They were usually made of lentisk wood, 

 though toothpicks of quill were used, and some made of gold 

 and silver have been found at various times. Pliny states that 

 toothpicks made of vulture quills turned the breath sour, while 

 porcupine quills made the teeth firm. 



As to when the stopping of teeth was first introduced there 

 is very conflicting evidence. One widespread statement is now 

 known to be untrue — namely, that the ancient Egyptians used 

 gold for stopping teeth. 



Recently some most remarkable discoveries have been made 

 in Mexico, Ecuador, and thereabouts of teeth from pre-Columbian 

 skulls inlaid with gold and precious stones (fig. 4). A consider- 

 able collection of these is to be seen in the Historical Medical 

 Museum in Wigmore Street, London, founded by Mr. H. S. 

 Wellcome. 



Modern Dentistry 



The father of modern dentistry was a Frenchman named 

 Pierre Fauchard, who practised about the year 1700. He was 

 the author of the first great text-book on the subject, and very 

 largely responsible for the introduction of artificial teeth as we 

 have them to-day. 



Fauchard conceived the plan of making artificial teeth out of 

 thin metal plate enamelled to represent front teeth. These were 

 kept in position by gold wires tied round the side teeth or by steel 

 springs such as are shown in the drawings on the next page. The 

 back teeth were merely represented by blocks of ivory. Later 



