A History of Dentistry from the most Ancient Times until the end of the Eighteenth Century. Vincenzo Guerini
tion>
Vincenzo Guerini
A History of Dentistry from the most Ancient Times until the end of the Eighteenth Century
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664606235
Table of Contents
PART I. FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY.
CHAPTER I. DENTAL ART AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.
CHAPTER III. DENTISTRY AMONG THE CHINESE.
CHAPTER IV. CUSTOMS RELATING TO THE TEETH AMONG DIFFERENT PRIMITIVE PEOPLES.
CHAPTER VI. DENTAL ART AMONG THE ETRUSCANS.
PART II. SECOND PERIOD—THE MIDDLE AGES.
CHAPTER IX. THIRTEENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.
PART III. THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES.
CHAPTER X. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER XI. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER XII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
PREFACE.
The idea of writing a History of Dentistry first suggested itself to me ten years ago, when I was charged by the Organizing Committee of the Eleventh International Congress of Medicine with the reproduction and description of all the appliances of ancient dental prosthesis existing in the museums of Italy.
The highly interesting researches in which I then became engaged in order to carry out worthily the important mission intrusted to me, awoke in me the desire to gain still further acquaintance with all that relates to dental art in the time of the ancients. I was thus urged on to ever fresh efforts, not only in the discovery of prosthetic appliances and other objects of ancient dentistry, but in the study, as well, of dental literature and of all the written matter that might throw light on dentistry in past ages.
This subject has already occupied many before me, and each one has brought to it his contribution of greater or less value, some in the form of short pamphlets, others in that of larger works.
The end I proposed to myself was to write a History of Dentistry which should be much more complete, more circumstantial, and more exact than those published hitherto, and which, instead of being, as are many of these works, simply a compilation, should represent, at least in part, the fruits of personal research and scrupulous examination of a vast number of works of various kinds containing elements utilizable for the purpose.
The first part of my work, which I now offer to the public, comprises the remote origin of Dentistry and its development throughout the ages as far as the end of the eighteenth century. In a short time I hope to publish the second part of it, viz., the History of Dentistry during the last hundred years.
I have carefully collected the greatest possible number of historical data, keeping in view the consideration that some facts, although of little value in themselves, may possess a certain importance for the student desirous of procuring historical information relating to some particular point of dental science.
If this book should, as I hope it may, contribute to the diffusion of exact historical knowledge as to the origin and gradual development of dentistry, my labor will not have been lost, for it will have realized the object, a highly practical one, which has guided me in writing it.
Vincenzo Guerini.
INTRODUCTION.
Every dentist who has ever given any thought to the development of his profession must have realized the growing necessity for an accessible and authoritative history of the dental art. The early efforts in this direction by Duval, Fitch, Carabelli, Snell, Linderer, Harris, and others, followed in this country by the more recent essays of Perine, Dexter, and Cigrand, are out of print and difficult to obtain. The Geschichte der Zahnheilkunde, by Geist-Jacobi, and Notice sur l’Histoire de l’Art Dentaire, by Lemerle, have given to the practitioners of Germany and France valuable information which the English-speaking dentist has often sadly lacked.
Realizing this situation, at the first meeting of the National Dental Association, the late Dr. R. Finley Hunt offered the resolution: “That a Committee of Three be appointed by the President to report at the next annual meeting a measure looking to the preparation of a full history of the Dental Profession.” After a careful consideration of the subject, this committee reluctantly concluded that, “whereas a complete history of dentistry may some day be the result of the effort now being made, this Association must confine its first attempts to the history of dentistry in America.” In a letter to the committee the late Dr. W. D. Miller said: “Of course, a universal history of dentistry would be very interesting and valuable, but its compilation would naturally cost an immense amount of labor.” Aside from this, it did not seem possible that the data for a proper history of the early development of the dental art in Africa and Europe could be collected by an association working in America.
After several years of what may have seemed a policy of masterly inactivity the unexpected happened, and the committee was able to report at the Buffalo meeting of the Association that Dr. Vincenzo Guerini, of Naples, Italy, had written a history of dentistry from the earliest times to the beginning of the nineteenth century, and that this work, translated into English and fully revised, had been generously placed in the hands of the committee for publication