



Produced by deaurider, Turgut Dincer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)






  ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
  Transcriber’s note:

  No major corrections have been made in the text, except
  a few to have consistency in spelling and hyphenations.
  Captions have been added to the portraits of dentists for
  clarity.
  —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

  PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF

[Illustration: The National Dental Association’s mark.]

  THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION
  OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  A
  HISTORY OF DENTISTRY

  FROM THE MOST ANCIENT TIMES
  UNTIL THE END OF THE
  EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

  BY
  DR. VINCENZO GUERINI, CAV. UFF.

  SURGEON-DENTIST, NAPLES, ITALY; DENTIST BY APPOINTMENT
  TO THE ROYAL HOUSE; DENTIST OF THE SURGICAL CLINIC OF
  THE UNIVERSITY OF NAPLES; EDITOR OF THE ITALIAN REVIEW
  L’ODONTO-STOMATOLOGIA; AUTHOR OF MANY ODONTOLOGICAL
  WORKS; HONORARY PRESIDENT AD VITAM OF THE ITALIAN
  ODONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY; MEMBER OF THE ITALIAN SOCIETY OF
  SCIENTISTS, LITERARY MEN, AND ARTISTS; OFFICER OF THE
  ORDER OF THE CROWN OF ITALY; DOCTOR OF DENTAL SURGERY
  AD HONOREM OF THE CHICAGO COLLEGE OF DENTAL SURGERY;
  HONORARY MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION,
  U.S.A.; MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF THE FEDERATION
  DENTAIRE INTERNATIONALE; TITULAR MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF
  THE PARIS DENTAL SCHOOL AND DISPENSARY; HONORARY MEMBER
  OF THE ODONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF MALAGA, ETC.

  With 104 Engravings and 20 Plates

[Illustration: Printer’s mark.]

  LEA & FEBIGER
  PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK
  1909

  COPYRIGHT, 1909
  BY THE
  NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION OF THE
  UNITED STATES OF AMERICA




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