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HISTOItY OF DENTAL SUKGEKY " 231

).)cen ascribed to liini." (This is not correct for he refers to it as a well known
operation.) "In the earliest days of American dentistry, this operation was
considerably in vogue. ]t was introduced here by Lemaire;^ who came to
this country with the French army in 17'81. His advent in Philadelpliia is
noted by an advertisement (1784) in which he proposes to transplant teeth,
and states that he luul in the six niunths previous, 'transplanted successfully
123 teeth.'
()f Lemairo's practice in this regard wo have further accounts. James
Gardette, in the "riiiladelphia Medical IJecorder,' 1827, says that 'Mr. Le-
niayeur, with the reputation of an eminent dentist, had transplanted one
hundred and seventy teetli in this city, in the course of the winter of the
years 1785 and 178G, as he told me himself, at Baltimore, in the fall of the
last mentioned year: and that, of all those transplanted teeth not one suc-
ceeded. Some became firm, and lasted, but those cases were very rare.'
After citing many cases of failure in transplantation which had come
under his notice, among which were two of John Hunter's and some of his
own operating, Mr. Gardette adds: "My opinion, therefore, is that teeth can
not be transplanted fioiii one mouth to another so as to answer the intended
ett'ect."'
"For several years after its introduction, transplantation was a part of
the practice of the most prominent American dentists. Replantation
" * * was also particularly advocated by Hunter, and has probably had
more of success than transplantation. Dr. James Gardette says of it:- 'It
has sometimes happened that a dentist has extracted a sound tooth for a bad
one. * * * If such a tootli is replaced in its socket immediately after
extraction, it will certainly become as firm and useful as ever.
"One phase of Dr. Gardette's replanting practice deserves notice from its
then novelty of purpose. He says : 'I have frequently partially extracted
and returned to their sockets, small and large molars which had been very
painful, after having cut the gum on the side opposite to that on which I in-
tended the tooth to fall in partially extracting it. The purpose of this oper-
ation is to separate or rend the nerve asunder, so as to prevent the tooth
from giving pain in future; it is then put back into its socket, permitted to
become firm, and the cavity is then to be plugged ; this I always did with full
success.' Dr. Gardette is believed to have been the first to perform this
operation."
1 ^Yatson 's Annals of Philadelphia, Vol. I, p. 179.
- Amerii-au Journal of Dental Science, 1st Series, Vol. X, p. 64.