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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 321

normal position h\ exercising the re(iuisite pixssiire iiiion tlieni. In \()ung
subjects the reguhiting ot crooked teeth is an easy matter, because of the
softness of the maxillary bone. However, it should not be undertaken
before all the bicuspids have come through. To correct protrusion of the
upper jaw, the author recommends the extraction of a bicuspid on each
side. To regulate the incisors it is sometimes necessary to make them
rotate on their axis with the forceps. In certain cases of protrusion of
the lower jaw one may have recourse with advantage to the inclined plane.
As a general rule, it is useless to lay bare a tooth with the lancet
before extracting it, although in certain cases this may be advantageous
in order to render its extraction easier and less painful.
Hunter was a strenuous partisan of replantation and transplantation
of the teeth; he made various experiments on animals, and treated this
important argument with particular fulness and much better than had
been done up to then by others.
In cases of difficult dentition he considered incision of the gums most
useful and, if necessar^^, to be had recourse to several times.
Foucou, the French dentist, in 1774, made known a compressor in-
vented by him for arresting hemorrhage ensuing on the extraction of
teeth. This instrument, which could be used for either jaw, exercised its
pressure not only in a vertical direction, but also laterally, and did not give
much inconvenience to the patient. Carabelli, who wrote seventy years
later, speaks with praise of Foucou's compressor, which he considers the
best instrument of its kind.
CouRTOis, in his book published in 1775,^ says that the enamel of the
teeth only reaches its perfection of development at twenty to twenty-two
years of age, and begins thenceforward to wear away gradually. In
speaking of the enamel, he advises avoiding the use of the file as much
as possible. This author's book is interesting for the many important
clinical cases it contains.
WiLLiCH, in 1778, related a most curious case relating to a woman,
aged forty years, who had never had her menstrual function, but had,
nevertheless, given birth to two children; the extraction of a tooth was
followed by an alveolar hemorrhage that lasted an hour; thenceforward,
this hemorrhage recurred regularly each month, for the space of eight
years.
Bucking, in 1782, published a Complete Guide to the Extraction of the
Teeth,- wherein he minutely describes all the instruments, their use, the
position of the operator and of the patient, indicating at the same time
the instruments best adapted for the extraction of each tooth. He declares

' Le dentiste observateur, Paris, 1775.
- Vollstandige Anweisung zum Zahnausziehen, Stendal, 1782.