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Till: EICiriEESTII CliNTlRr 2(i;]

these pieces suhsnrure rheiii so well that tlK\ sei\c pi i tictU tor the same
uses as the natural teeth. 10 the pre)U(lice ot iin own interests 1 now
give the most exact description possible of them."
Now, although a man ot elevated mind, such as Fauchard, ma\ have
been capable of sacrificing his material interests to higher aims, it is
not, however, to be wondered at, taking also into consideration the lesser
degree of culture and of professional abilit\ of his jiredecessors, that none
among them should have been found sufhcientb disinterested to publish
the results ot their particular studies and experience, besides all those
technical details which according to the ideas of that time constituted
the secrets of the profession.
Y In the course of this histor\', we have seen that the dental art w as
practised trom the most remote tmies and m the most \arious countries,
remainmg, notwithstanding, tor centuries in an embrxonal condition. It
was toward the end ot the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth
centur\ that, in the midst of the highlv advanced civilization of the great
French capital, it attained a high degree of development, entitling it to
be considered a special branch of the medical art.
It would, therefore, be wrong to believe that the dental art was created,
for the most part, b\ Fauchard, and one clearly perceives, from the perusal
of his work, that although he made most important contributions to this
specialty, which he cultivated with passion, nevertheless, the greater
part of the things therein treated of were alreadv known before his time,
although no reference to them is to be found in previous works; and this
for the reasons we have alread\' suggested. The highest merit of Fauchard
consists, still more than in his inventions and impro\ ements, in his iKnmg
most abh' collected and incorporated in a single work the w hole doctrine
of dental art, theoretical as well as practical, thus setting in full light the
importance of the specialtv, and giving it a solid scientific basis.
France is therefore the first country where modern dentistry reached
a high degree of development and also the first countr\' wdiere, earlier
than elsewhere, that is, about i/OO, the dentists began to form a well-
defined class, to belong to which it was necessary to pass a special exami-
nation. This examination, as we learn from Fauchard, was held before
a commission of which no dentist formed a part, and exactly for this
reason gave but negative results and responded but little to its intended
aim. The greater number of those who were authorized to practise
dentistry after undergoing this examination showed a professional ability
below mediocritv. Nevertheless, although few in number, good and able
dentists w^ere ,m no wav wanting, as clearl\- appears from the pretace
to Fauchard's work, and better still from the following paragraph,^

' Vol.
ii, p. 366.