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DENTAL ART AMONG THE ECVPTIANS 29

The distinguished craniologist Prof. Eniil Schniidr, of Leipzig, who
owns a collection of several hundred nuinmiies' skulls, writes thus on
the question now before us: "In no jaw have I ever found an\thing
that could be attributed to the work of dentists: no Hllings, no filing or
trepanning of teeth, no prosthesis."' Virchow, who also examined
a great many Egyptian skulls, among w^hich were several belonging to
royal mummies, did not find any indications of dentists' work;-' and
Mummer}-, as well, although he made the most conscientious researches
on this subject, could not arrive at any positive results whatever.'
Betw^een the affirmations of some and the negations of others, it is
very~3^ifficult to say on which side the truth lies. For my own part, I
fail to find that there is the least proof of the ancient Egyptians having
know^n how^ to insert gold fillings and still less to apply pivot teeth.
But at the same time I think it cannot be doubted that the Eg\ptian
dentists knew how to apply artificial teeth. And even though it may
not be possible to demonstrate this by direct proof, one is equally prone
to admit it W'hen one considers, on the one hand, the remarkable ability
of the ancient Egyptians in all plastic arts, and, on the other hand, the
great importance they attributed to the beautifying of the human bod\
;
so much so, that even in so ancient a document as the Ebers papyrus,
one finds formulae for medicaments against baldness, for lotions for the
hair, and other kinds of cosmetics. Is it likely, therefore, that so refined
and ingenious a people should not have found the means of remedying
the deformity resulting from the loss of one or more front teeth ^:
Fortunately, however, we are not bound to content ourselves with
simple suppositions, for a well-authenticated archeological discovery made
in the month of May, 1862, has put us in possession of an irrefutable
proof.
The discover}' to wdiich we allude is registered in Renan's Mission
de Phenicie, and was the result of researches made in the necropolis of
Saida (the ancient Sidon) by Dr. Gaillardot, Renan's colleague in his
important scientific mission. In a grave in one of the most ancient parts
of the necropolis, Dr. Gaillardot found, in the midst of the sand that
filled the grave, a quantity of small objects, among which were two copper
coins, an iron ring, a vase of most graceful outline, a scarab, twelve
very small statuettes of majolica representing Egyptian divinities, which
probably formed a necklace, to judge by the holes bored in them. But
among the objects found (w^hich, together with that we are about to
mention, are now in the Louvre at Paris), the most important of all is
"a part of the upper jaw^ of a woman, with the two canmes and the

' Ibid.
' Geist-Jacobi, Geschichte der Zahnheilkunde, p. g.
Mbid.