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frightful appearance ; and were terrible instruments either
for defenee or attack ; for says Daniel,* " after this I saw in
the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and
terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had great iron
it devoured and brake in pieces, &c." Their loss
" teeth ;
was punished by the law of retaliation, an eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth.
The Poets of India occasionally delight to refer to the
beauty and cleanliness of the teeth, in most pleasing images,
as;f
" The Cunda blossom yields to the whiteness of the Teeth : speak but
one mild word, and the rays of thy sparkling teeth will dispel the gloom
!"
of my fears
The Ancient Greeks and Romans acknowledged the im-
portance of the teeth; and, so far had the principles and
practice of Dental Surgery advanced amongst them, that
their natural history was considerably understood, and almost
every part of this science and art was known and practised
by their physicians, and persons with whom it was a par-

ticular profession. Galen speaks of this last class of prac-
titioners, and calls them A'rpto- \ Javrtwr, (Medicins Den-
taires) Physicians, or Surgeon Dentists. Hippocrates, who
has justly been styled the " Father of Medicine," has trans-
mitted to us an account of many operations upon the teeth,
or, as the French with great propriety term them, " Ope-
rations Odontotecniques." But we have never received from
the Greeks or Romans, any works especially devoted to this
branch of Surgery or Medicine. The Greek and Latin
poets have refered to the teeth at almost every period of
their growth and age. They have spoken of artificial teeth

* Chap. 7. verse 7. \ Gitazovinda. Murphy, page 152.