Page 15 - My FlipBook

A HISTORY OF DENTISTRY.

PART I.

FIRST PERIOD—ANTK^ITY

INTRODUCTION.

The first beginnings of dental art were undoubtedly the same as those
of general medicine, for it is evident that in primitive times, when the
healing art^was still in its rudimentary stage, no divisions could have
existed in it.
Scientific medicine, whose most ancient representative is Hippocrates,
was preceded for the course of many centuries by sacerdotal medicine and
by popular medicine.
Necessity, instinct, and even mere chance must have taught primitive
man some simple curative practices, in the same manner that they taught
him gradually to prepare his food and to satisfy the other wants of
It w^as in this way that popular medicine, which is found without
life.
exception among all races and is perhaps as ancient as man himself,
had its earliest beginning.
As regards sacerdotal medicine, it was principally derived from the false
ideas prevalent among primitive peoples about the causes of maladies.
When, for example, an individual in full health was seized with sudden
illness, no one could imagine, in those times of profound ignorance,
that this happened in a natural manner; the fact was therefore attributed
to a supernatural cause, that is, to his having been stricken by the wrath
of some divinity. In this state of things it was believed to be absolutely
necessary to propitiate the inimical or vengeful divinity, so that the
patient might be restored to health. It was, therefore, very natural that
the intervention of sacerdotal aid should be sought, that is, of the sup-
posed intermediaries between human beings and the gods. The priests,
on their side, were ready to occupy themselves with such cases, for
their services were always well recompensed, and, added to this, if the