262 DUBOIS— JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i86o. [April 21, 



The mention of the set of artificial teeth on a gold plate suggests 

 a pendant to Gross' surgery. The modern development of 

 Japanese dentistry is wholly American. According to Dr. Chiwaki, 

 the president of the Tokio Dental College/ dentistry, as an art, is 

 about two centuries old in Japan. In some respects the old 

 dentistry was barbarous and crude but artificial dentures were made 

 of carved wood — also of alabaster or ivory riveted to a base of hard 

 wood. But on the whole the art was clumsy and its pursuit became 

 disreputable. 



" Perry's feat, however," says Dr. Chiwaki, " brought about a 

 many-sided change in the political, social and educational institu- 

 tions of Japan ; and, in consequence, the old system of dentistry 

 could not remain unafifected." Two American dentists. Dr. East- 

 lake and Dr. W. St. George Elliott, opened offices at the beginning 

 of the Aleiji era. This was "the first direct cause of the develop- 

 ment of our dentistry in the true sense of the word." Others fol- 

 lowed, and the Japanese came to the United States for dental educa- 

 tion. Japan now manufactures dentist's appliances and supports 

 at least two dental colleges. 



The introduction of American dentistry to Japan is not directly 

 traceable to the embassy of i860 but its acceptance is one of those 

 forms of Japanese confidence in American. models first gained as a 

 national leaven in the days of the Shogun. 



For the sake of completeness and also to note two or three inci- 

 dents or facts of contributory import in estimating results this study 

 must follow the embassy out of Philadelphia to New York, Satur- 

 day, June 18, where there was repetition of street procession and 

 general ovation as in Philadelphia. (On this very day the news of 

 the assassination of the regent arrived by letter to the New York 

 Tribune.) 



According to an account in the Tribune the street scenes on the 

 route of entry from the Battery to the Metropolitan Hotel on 

 Broadway, were free from those " riotous excesses " which char- 

 acterized the multitude at Philadelphia. Never, said the Tribune, 

 had more human beings been congregated at and below the Battery 



^Dental Cosmos, October, 1905. 



