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THE SIXTEENTH CENTURT 217 "
The above-mentioned fact is not tlie onl\ ont- of its kind. Serres
relates that once there was a great noise made in I'oland about the pre-
tended golden teeth of another child w ho was carried round from cit\ to
cit\- for the purpose of making mone\ . A Franciscan monk had sought
to explain, in one of his writings, the formation of these teeth. The
anatomist Kircher answered him in a |iamphlet which had rlu- \erv
suitable epigraph: O prcrclare pater, nnniiun uc crede lolori.^ In fact,
the pretended teeth were only covered with a layer of tartar of golden
color. As the falsity of the pretended miracle might be brought to light
at any moment with much scandal, a bishop thought it well to |nir an
end in haste to the comed\-, b\- ordering the remo\al of the deceitful la\cr
of tartar from the teeth ot the child, to be performed in public, so that the
imposture might be made completeh- clear.
From the above story we can, at any rate, deduce an important con-
clusion for the history of dental art, that is to say, that even as earh'
as 1593 there was an artificer (we do not know whether a goldsmith or
dentist) who knew how to construct a gold crown, although onh for the
purposes of deception.

ment on an\' point, presented themselves, he contorted his countenance, remained silent,
and simulated a kind of madness, the idea being that he permitted himself to be examined
at stated times only when the conditions allowed. Now, the tooth was covered with a
plate, lamina (or layer), skilfully wrought of the best gold, and the gold was let down so
deep into the gum that the cheat was not observed. However, as the plate was sometimes
rubbed with a touch-stone as a test and was daily worn down b\' chewing, the real tooth
at last began to appear. Of this fact a certain nobleman got an inkling, came to the
place pretty drunk, and demanded that the tooth should be shown him, when the young
fellow, at his master's word, kept silent, the nobleman struck his dagger into the boy's
mouth, wounding him so badly that the aid of a surgeon had to be called, and so the
deception was fully exposed.
" Thus the Herr Baron Fabianus, in Crema, at present Rector Magnificus of our Uni-
versity, told me the story in full, and those inhabitants of the place who have scholarly
tastes maintain it to a man. The author of the fraud, if I remember aright, was said ro
have taken refuge in flight, the boy to be in chains.
" Our Pelargus, who is a native of Schwidnitz, can inform you more fully. I have
often heard from him the same facts which I am writing. farewell, and laugh in safety
as much as you please at those sagacious authors.
"Frankfort, December 31, 151)5."
Elsewhere it is stated that the boy who was the possessor of the " Golden 1 ooth
was born December 22, 1586. As Horst's Treatise appeared in 1595, the Silesian boy
was probably not over seven or eight years of age. We also find that the " Golden
Tooth" was a lower molar, and upon the left side, and further, that there was no molar
posterior to it.— E. C. K.]
' Illustrious Father, do not believe too much in the color.— [Virgil, Ec. ii, 16.]