A History of Dentistry from the most Ancient Times until the end of the Eighteenth Century. Vincenzo Guerini

      A reproduction of the gold piece forming the appliance seen in Fig. 23.

      In those of the Etruscan appliances destined for the application of inserted teeth, the gum was not made to support the prosthesis, and did not, therefore, suffer any compression from the extraneous body, this resting entirely, like a bridge, upon the neighboring teeth. From which it may be seen that twenty-five centuries and more before our time the Etruscans dentists already practised a system of bridge work, and, relatively to the age, carried it out with sufficient ability.

CHAPTER VII.

       THE ROMANS.

       Table of Contents

      For many centuries the Romans, according to the saying of Pliny, lived entirely “without doctors, although not without medicine;”108 that is, there existed without doubt a popular medicine and also a sacerdotal medicine, but still there were no persons whose exclusive occupation it was to cure disease.

      The medical art, properly so called, was introduced into Rome by the Greeks. The first Greek doctor who went to Rome was Archagathus (in the year 535 after the foundation of the city, that is, 218 years before Christ). His arrival was at first welcomed, so much so that he was made a Roman citizen and a shop bought for him in the Acilian square, at the expense of the State. However, his popularity was of brief duration. Being an intrepid operator, the use and abuse he made of steel and fire gained for him the not very honorable qualification of the butcher, and he soon became the horror of all the population.

      But it appears that dentistry had begun to be practised in Rome prior to the coming of Archagathus, that is, long before the medical profession existed. We have the clear proof of this in the Law of the Twelve Tables, wherein we find mention made of teeth bound with gold. The Law of the Twelve Tables was written in Rome 450 years before Christ, by a body of ten magistrates (decemviri) expressly named for that purpose, as up to that time no written law had existed.

      As gold was at that time somewhat scarce, and fears were entertained that it would become still scarcer (to the great damage of the State) by reason of the custom that prevailed among the wealthy of burning or burying gold articles with the corpses to honor the memory of the deceased, or, rather, to satisfy the pride of the survivors, it was thought necessary to prohibit this abuse by a special disposition of the law referring to funeral pomps. This disposition was thus formulated: “Neve aurum addito, ast quoi auro dentes iuncti escunt (sunt) im cum illo sepelirei vrive sine fraude esto;”109 that is, “Neither shall gold be added thereto (to the corpse); but it shall not be unlawful to bury or to burn it with the gold with which the teeth may perchance be bound together.”

      From this it results that at the time when the Law of the Twelve Tables was written, that is, four centuries and a half before the Christian era, there were already individuals in Rome who practised dental operations. And these individuals cannot have been medical men, as at that epoch (corresponding pretty nearly with the date of Hippocrates’ birth) Rome had as yet no doctors.

      The inquiry naturally suggests itself whether the gold mentioned in the legal dispositions above cited was used for fixing artificial teeth or simply for strengthening unsteady natural teeth. Some authors, Serre among them,110 have pronounced in favor of the first hypothesis, others, as, for example, Geist-Jacobi,111 are rather disposed to accept the second. In truth, however, we do not possess sufficient historical data to definitely resolve this problem. I myself am rather of opinion that artificial teeth were already in use in Rome, as they were, even before this time, among the Etruscans. Indeed, if we take into consideration the priority of the Etruscan civilization to the Roman and the relations of vicinity existing between Etruria and the Roman State, of which it afterward became a part, it is even possible that dental prosthesis was first practised in Rome by Etruscans.

      In a Greek-Roman necropolis near Teano (Province of Caserta, Italy) there was found in February, 1907, a prosthetic piece of a very peculiar construction, and which may be considered as quite unique in its kind. It is an appliance destined to support three inserted human teeth (the two lower central incisors and the lateral incisor on the right). These teeth—lost perhaps by the patient himself, in consequence of alveolar pyorrhea—were fixed by means of a system of rings, made of laminated gold wire, turned around the teeth and then soldered.

      By the examination of the piece it is easy to argue that the author of this prosthesis made at first three separate rings by tightly turning the laminated gold wire around each of the three teeth to be applied, and by soldering together the ends of the wire forming each ring, after having taken away the tooth, in order not to spoil it in making the soldering. Then, with another laminated gold wire of sufficient length, he soldered the three rings together in due position, put the appliance in the mouth and turned the two ends of the wire around the sound teeth, serving as a support for the lateral incisor on the left and the two canines. After this, he took the apparatus delicately out of the mouth, made the soldering necessary for finishing the skeleton of the apparatus, forcibly put the three teeth in their respective rings again, and applied the prosthesis.

      This ingenious appliance was found still adherent to the mandible of a skeleton, in a tomb which, according to the eminent archæologist Dalli Osso, belongs to a period comprised between the third and the fourth century before Christ.

      From the nature of the objects found in the tomb near the skeleton (a necklace, perfume vessels, etc.) it was quite evident that the skeleton bearing the above-described prosthesis was that of a woman.

      As the said appliance was found in South Italy (the ancient “Magna Græcia”) it is quite probable that it was made by some dentist of the Greek colonies.

      The above apparatus belongs to the archæological collection of Signor Luigi Nobile, in Teano, in whose possession it was found.

Fig. 25 Seen from behind.	Fig. 26 Seen from above.
A prosthetic piece of very peculiar construction (see description), found in 1907 near Teano, Italy.

      The Romans, as well as the Hebrews, and other peoples of antiquity, attributed great importance to the integrity of the dental system. This may be deduced with certainty from another article in the Law of the Twelve Tables (Table VII, at the rubric De delictis), which says: “Qui dentem ex gingiva excusserit libero homini, trecentis assibus multator, qui servo C L.” (Whoever shall cause the tooth of a free man to fall shall pay a fine of three hundred as, and for that of a slave one hundred and fifty.) The as was worth about ten cents American money, so that the first fine amounted to about thirty dollars and the second to about fifteen dollars. These sums, because of the difference in the monetary value in those times, were considered heavy fines.

      After the Romans had conquered Greece (146 B.C.) a very great number of Greek doctors went to Rome. The wealth, luxury, and ever-increasing corruption of