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THE SEFENTEENTH CENTURY 253

ficial teeth with a C()ni]")()siti()n ot his own imcinion, whuh was ohtaiiud
h\ fusing together w hite wax and a small (|iiantit\' of gum elemi, and then
adding ground mastic, powder of white coral and of pearls. 1 his fact is, as
everyone can see, most important, for it constitutes the first step toward
the manufacture and use of mineral teeth. Dionis tells us that the teeth
made of Guillemeau's composition never became \ ellow, and that it was
also verv good for stopping deca\ed teeth.' It would seem, therefore,
that it could be used as cement is now used.
The Guillemeau of whom Dionis speaks is |)rohabl\ fac(]ues (niille-
meau, the author of a book now no longer to be found, which was trans-
lated from the French, first into Dutch, and afterward into German.
Crowle\", in his Dental Bibliography, onh' quotes the German edition,
published at Dresden in 1710, the title of which runs thus: J^er
aufrichtige Augen uud Zalmarzt.'
JEAN Verduc, also a Frenchman, relates a case of the surgeon Car-
meline,^ analogous to that of Denis Pomaret, in which a sound tooth
which had been extracted by mistake was immediately replanted and
took root again, becoming quite firm. However, Verduc does not speak
of replantation as a special method of cure, but mereh' refers to the above
case incidentalh' in speaking of the extraction of teeth. He considers this
operation a most dangerous one, and advises not having recourse to
it except in cases of utmost necessity. Notwithstanding this, Verduc
gives us to understand that teeth were drawn with sufficient ability by
most of the operators of the time, and precisely because of this he omits
describing the manner of performing the operation. According to Verduc,
the drawing of teeth is often of little or no advantage against toothache.^
In proof of this assertion he relates the case of a hypochondriac, who
little by little had as man\- as eighteen teeth extracted, without, however,
getting the better or the wiser; but as this case does not prove an\"thing
at all, one is disposed to think that Verduc, in relating it, had the intention
of being humorous.
Monsieur de Lavauguyon. To another French surgeon, Monsieur
de Lavauguyon, also a contemporary of Dionis, belongs the merit of
having declared useless, in the greater number of cases, the practice, at
that time general, of separating the gums from the tooth before proceeding

' Dionis, Cours d'operations de chirurgie, Pans, 1716, p. 507 and following.
[The Dresden edition of 1710 of Guillemeau's work contains no reference to the
artificial tooth composition as mentioned by Dionis.—E. C K.]
* Carmeline was a most able surgeon-dentist. We learn this from a passage in Pierre
Fauchard's book (Le Chirurgien Dentiste, Pref., p. 13). As we shall see, the author praises
him very highly and laments his not having written any book making known the results of
his long experience.
* Sprengel, Geschichte der Chirurgie, vol. ii, p. 305.