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344 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES

1797. Ruspini did not, in reality, contribute very much to the develop-
ment of dental science. He is, however, to be especially remembered as
the inventor of a very good mouth mirror, a means of examination which
afterward gradually came into general use.

Having brought our history of dentistry up to the end of the eighteenth
century, in order to complete our work we must now speak of an innova-
tion in dental prosthesis, which, although gradually brought to perfection
in the following century, was first introduced at that time. We allude to
the

INVENTION OF MINERAL TEETH.

The merit of this invention is due, in part, to an individual outside
the dental profession, namely, to the French chemist Duchateau, of St.
Germain en Laye, near Paris, who first had the idea of employing porcelain
as material for dental prosthesis. However, his idea would not have
yielded fruitful results had it not been for the cooperation of the dentist
Dubois de Chemant, who succeeded in putting it into practice.
The circumstances connected with this invention were the following:
The chemist Duchat'eau had for some time worn a denture of hippopota-
mus ivory, but as usually happened with all the prosthetic pieces of that
time, which were made of organic material, and were, therefore, subject
to decay, this denture had acquired a very disagreeable odor, resulting
from the action of the buccal humors. Besides which, Duchateau
being obliged, by reason of his profession, to continually taste pharma-
ceutic preparations, his denture had gradually become impregnated with
medicinal substances that imparted a nauseous taste to everything he
ate. The unpleasantness of this was a subject of much consideration
with him, and thus it was that, to remedy the evil, he gradually matured
the idea of having a porcelain denture made, on the model ot the ivory
one. In the year 1774 he applied to the porcelain manufactory of M.
Guerhard in Paris for the carrying out of his design. The first trial
was not successful, for in the baking the paste contracted so much that
the denture was no longer of the right dimensions. To remedy this, he
now had another and larger denture made, to allow for its contraction
in the baking. But the results did not correspond with his wishes, and
many trials were still necessary before Duchateau was able to obtain a
denture which he judged fit for use, although not without defects. As
this denture, because of its dead whiteness, produced an unpleasant
effect, he had a yellowish tint, resembling that of the natural teeth, given
to it, and, as is usual with painting on porcelain, fixed this color by baking
a second time.