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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 'Ml

The prosthetic appHanccs h\- Duhois de Cluniaiit were made in one
single piece that represented the gums and teeth, whether in the case of
one or more teeth, or of whole dental sets. lie used to take a cast of the
parts on which the prosthesis was to he applied, and h\ a process, the
details of which are not known; he succeeded in ohtaining prosthetic
pieces that fitted the parts perfectly, notwithstanding the difficulties re-
sulting from the shrinking of the paste in baking. If the piece required
retouching, he did this hv means of special tools for grinding down por-
celain. He could, besides, drill holes in the porcelain for the application
of the means of attachment. In fact, Dubois de Chemant was the
creator ot a new method ot prosthesis applicable to an\' and every case,
and w^hich gained the praise and admiration of the great doctors and
scientists of that dav, among whom may be mentioned Geoffroy, Vicq
d'As\r, Descemet, Bajet, Petit Radel, Darcet, Sabatier, Jenner, and
others. The Paris Faculty of Medicine gave it as their judgment that
the prosthetic pieces manufactured by Dubois de Chemant united the
qualities of beauty, solidity, and comfort to the exigencies of hygiene.
These eulogies must, however, be received with a certain reserve, as,
beyond doubt, the mineral teeth of that time still left much to be desired.
In England, where, as we have already said, they had been introduced by
the inventor, the\' at first obtained a great success, which was, howe\er,
of short duration, and Maury^ tells us that toward 1814 they had fallen
into great discredit and had been entirely abandoned; this signifies that
practically they did not fulfil the expectations held out.
Dubois Foucou and Fonzi. Among the first who occupied themselves
with the manufacturing of mineral teeth, contributing also to their
improvement, are to be named Dubois Foucou, to whom w^e have already
made reference, and Fonzi, an Italian by birth, who exercised the profes-
sion of dentist in Paris. Dubois Foucou made some improvements in
the coloring of porcelain teeth, and in 1808 published a pamphlet in
which he explained his mode of proceeding in manufacturing them.'
In the same year Fonzi made known a new kind ot teeth, ^ which he
called terro-mctallic. These differed from those of Dubois de Chemant
in that they w^ere all single teeth intended to be applied on a base by
means of small hooks of platina, with which each tooth was furnished.
In addition to this important innovation, Fonzi also discovered the
means of imitating in some degree the semitransparent tint peculiar to
natural teeth.

' F. Maury. Traite complet de I'art du dentiste, d'apres I'etat acruel des connaissances,
2 vols., Paris, 1828.
- Expose de nouveaux procedes pour la confection des dents dites de composition, par
M. Dubois Faucou, Paris, 1808.
'
Rapport sur les dents artificielles terro-metalliques, Paris, 1808.