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DENTAL ART AMOSC THE ETRUSCANS 71

appliance is formed by a series of four gold rings meant ro encircle four
teeth (canine, bicuspids, and first molar). The third ring is traversed b\'
a pivot riveted at the two extremities, which was meant to hold fast an
artiticial tooth (the second bicuspid); this is wanting, however. One
naturalh' puts the (juestion. How is the disappearance of this tooth to
be accounted for, it having been traversed b\- the pivot, which is still
found in its place .^ The suppositions are two: Either the artificial tooth
was made of some not very durable material, which, in the course of time,
became reduced to powder or fell to pieces, or ma\ have been destr()\ ed
in some other wa\'; or else the artificial tooth, instead of being simpl\
perforated to allow the pivot to pass through, was cleft longitudinalh- at
its base and, being introduced into the ring sat, so to speak, astride the
pivot. In the second case, which, however, seems to me the less probable
of the tw^o, the tooth may merely have come off the pivot and gotten lost.
In the Civic Museum of Corneto, the ancient Tar(|uinii, there are
two dental appliances, one of which (Figs. i6 and 17) is of the greatest
interest. It was found in one of the most ancient tombs in the necropolis
of Tarquinii. This specimen of prosthesis is formed of three teeth;
the two upper central incisors and the second bicuspid on the left, which
is no longer in existence.
Fig. 15

Etruscan appliance found at Valsiarosa, destined to support an artificial bicuspid,
now disappeared.
To afford support and maintain the three artificial teeth in position,
the Etruscan dentist of about three thousand \ears ago, ingenioush-
made use of the canine and the lateral incisor on the right, the canine,
the first bicuspid, and the first molar on the left, connecting them b\ a
continuous series of pure gold rings soldered together. The dentist had
not emplo\ed human teeth to replace the incisors which the indnidual
had lost; according to the religious laws of the time, the dead were held
sacred, and it would probabh' have been considered sacrilege to use their
teeth; or it may also be that the patient had declared his aversion to the
idea of substituting his own teeth b\- those of a dead man. However
this may be, the Etruscan dentist thought well to repace the missing
incisors with a somewhat large ox tooth; upon this he had made a groove,
so as to gi\e it the appearance of two teeth. In realit\' this ox tooth
occupies the place not onlv of the two middle incisors, but also of the
lateral incisor on the left. Perhaps by a natural anomaly the individual