ANCIENT AND MODERN DENTISTRY 505 



on sets of artificial teeth were made of ivory or bone, the plate 

 as well as the teeth being carved out of one block of ivory. The 

 fossil teeth of the mastodon found in the north of Europe towards 

 the end of the eighteenth century were very plentiful, and were 

 regularly sold in blocks of suitable size for the making of sets 

 of artificial teeth. Walrus teeth were also used for the same 

 purpose. 



Apart from their unattractive appearance, these ivory sets 

 were most unhygienic, and very soon became foul and un- 

 wearable. 



George Washington wore a set of teeth of this kind, which 



can now be seen in the Dental Museum of the London Hospital, 



together with a letter in his own hand written to his dentist, 



a Mr. Greenwood, of Philadelphia, in 1795, which reads as 



follows : 



Philadelphia, 



loth Feb., 1795. 



Sir, 



Your last letter with accompaniment, came safe to my 

 hands on tuesday last. 



Enclosed you will receive sixty dollars in Bank notes of the 

 United States. In addition to which I pray you to accept my 

 thanks for the ready attention which you have at all times paid 

 to my requests : and that you will believe me to be, with 

 esteem-Sir 



Your very H ble Servant, 



G° Washington. 

 Mr. Jn° Greenwood. 



Later on, although the tooth plates continued to be made of 

 ivory, bone, or metal, the artificial teeth themselves were 

 extracted human teeth carefully preserved by dentists for the 

 purpose ; every dentist kept a jar of old teeth from which to 

 make a selection, and when a dental practice was for sale, an 

 estimate of its value depended upon the stock of old teeth in 

 the possession of the vendor! 



An enormous number of apparently healthy teeth were 

 extracted in those days for a disease called at that time " scurvy 

 of the gums," which was probably simply the condition we now 

 describe as " pyorrhoea " ; these teeth were fixed on the ivory 

 and metal tooth plates and used as artificial teeth. 



The invention of porcelain artificial teeth by Dubois de 

 Chemant, a French dentist, marked an epoch in modern 



