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260 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES
second edition^ of this most important treatise, and of this we now intend
making use for accurately analyzing the work, as it is probably more
complete than the first, whilst the third, having been published after the
author's death, is probably merely a reprint.
The work consists of two volumes in duodecimo, in all 863 pages. In
the beginning there is the portrait of the author and a long and interesting
preface. The portrait, which we here reproduce, has also its historical
importance, and this for two reasons, the first of which being that in it
Fauchard is revealed to us as a person of very distinguished appearance,
and this gives us an idea of the social condition of the surgeon dentists
of his time; the second, because there are annexed to the portrait the
following Latin verses, by a certain Moraine, in which, whilst eulogizing
the writings of the author and his ability in the treatment of the teeth,
and in restoring force and beauty to them, he counsels him "to despise
the tooth of envy," as it will certainly break against his merit.

Dum dextra et scriptis solamina dentibus afFers
Illorum in tuto sunt decor atque salus.
Invidiae spernas igitur, Faucharde, cruentos
Dentes; nam virtus frangere novit eos.
That Fauchard, in common with all men of rare merit, had to combat
all his life against envy, we are able to perceive from what we read at
the end of the second volume of his work. The author here says that
"the rumor having been falsely set about that he has abandoned the pro-
fession; which rumor cannot have been invented otherwise than by those
individuals who, sacrificing honor to interest, would attract to themselves
the persons who honor the author with their confidence; he therefore
finds it necessary to give warning that he still continues the practice of
his art in Paris, in the Rue de la Comedie Fran^aise, together with his
brother-in-law and sole student, M. Duchemin."
More than a century and a half has passed by since Fauchard was
obliged to defend himself against lies invented and set about to his damage
by envious colleagues, but even at the present day, when, given the high
grade that civilization has reached, and professional competition ought not
to make use of other weapons than intelligence, study, and application,
some do not hesitate to have recourse to means equally disloyal, ignoble,
and shameless as those practised by some contemptible dentists of the
middle of the eighteenth century.
The preface of Fauchard's book is especially important for the notices
therein contained regarding the author, as well as the conditions of dental
art at that period. And first of all, we find in it the proof of what we have
already said elsewhere, namely, that even before Fauchard, there were not

' Deuxic-me edition revue, corrige et considerahlement augmentee, a I*aris, 1746.