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CHAPTER XII.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Although there have been, even from the most remote times, indi-
viduals who have dedicated themselves exclusiveh' to the cure of dental
maladies, or to repairing the losses of the dental s\ stem h\ artificial
means, and notwithstanding the progress gradually accomplished in this
branch of the medical art, which progress was especially remarkable
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, itis not to be denied tha t,
up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, dentistryjwas, ingreatj)art,
considered one with medicine and surgery in general. It is but natural
that dental art (and the same may be said of every special branch of
medicine) could not assume a real individuality until it had attained to
the higher grades of its development. As a matter of fact, dentistry,
toward the end of the seventeenth century, was already a jrue^ speciajty,
although it counted but few worthy representatives at that time. The
definite separation between the science and art of dentistry and general
medicine and surgery, although it may have been retarded, could not fail
to take place; and this, as we shall presently see, was effected by the
celebrated French dentist Pierre Fauchard.
But, to remain faithful to chronological order, we will first speak
briefly of some other writers.
LuDWiG Cron, a barber of Leipsic, in a pamphlet published in 17 17,
with the title The barber s apprentice versed in bleeding and tooth pulling,^
declares, in a still more emphatic and general way than De Lavaugu\on,
that it is useless to detach the gum before proceeding to extract a tooth.
This barber, strong in his own experience, dares to assert absolutely use-
less this ancient practice, advised first by Cornelius Celsus, and recom-
mended after him, and in homage to his authority, by many other writers.
It is, therefore, possible that even previous to Cron and De Lavauguyon
many operators had dispensed with the practice recommended by Celsus,
although this had become an accepted canon of the high medical pro-
fession.
LoRENZ Heister (1683 to 1 758), of Fran kfort-am-Main, one of the
most celebrated surgeons of the eighteenth century, wrote a dissertation
on toothache,- treating besides very extensively of dental affections and

' Der beym aderlassen und Zahn-ausziehen Gcschickten Barbicrgcstll, Leipsic, 171 7.
^ De dentium dolore, Altdorf, 171 1.