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HISTOT.'Y OF DEXTAL SUIU4ERY 71

He experimented bv transplanting a sound tooth drawn from a living
person into the thick part of a cock's comb, having made an incision into
this with a lancet. Into this the root of the tooth was jjressed and tied in.
Several months afterwards the cock was killed and the head injected. The
comb was then taken off, pnt into weak acid, and having been softened by
this, a longitudinal separation was made through the tooth and comb. The
vessels of tlie tooth were found to be well injected and the e.xternal surface
of tlie tooth was everywhere attached to the comb by vessels similar to the
union of a tooth with the gum and sockets.
He observes that the operation of transplanting a tooth in itself pre-
sents little difficult}', Init nevertheless it is one of the nicest of all operations
and requires more surgical and pliysiological knowledge than any that comes
under the care of the dentist. The first object of attention is the socket
and the gums of the person who is to have the furnished tooth. In the opera-
tion of transplanting, the diseased tooth is to be first drawn. It will show
the state of the socket: and the scion tooth is to be left or drawn, according
to the api)eara]ice of the diseased one. He explains the use of the word
scion and thought tliat as the operation is similar to that of the ingrafting
of trees, he might transfer a term from gardening to surgery. He recom-
mends in case the operation is not favorable that the scion tooth l)e not drawn,
but that every dentist have on hand a number of dead teeth that he may
have a chance to lit into tlie socket. In cases involved with ''gum boils," he
does not recommend transplanting, as these are always connected with dis-
eased centers, althougii the disease originated in the extracted tooth. He treats
of the age of the person who is to have the scion tooth, which sliould be a
full grown, young tooth: young because the principle of life and union is
much stronger in such than in old ones. He next treats of replanting a
sound tooth when drawn by mistake, and then of transplanting a dead
tooth and the immediate fastening of a trans])Ianted tooth. He then speaks
of dentition, of the cure and diseases arising from dentition, and of cutting
the gums, which he strongly advises in all cases.
That transplanting of teeth was common dental practice at that period
may be well inferred. In "A Practical Essay on the Human Teeth," by
Paul Eurialius Jullion, a surgeon dentist, published in London, in 1781, in
a list of his "accustomed cliarges" is the following entry: "Transplanting
a living tooth 5 pounds, ^ sliillings; transplanting a death tooth, 2 pounds,
3 shillings."
John Hunter wrote many papers in tlie realms of anatomical, physiological