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HISTOEY OF DENTAL SURGERY 249

fiture, as the majorit}' of tlip people were cremated, but it is safe to say that o"
y^
they knew about dental prosthesis as early as 500 B. C.
Belzoni says: ''The Greeks wore false teeth of sycamore wood which had
been fastened to adjoining natural ones by ligatures of gold or silver."
Many cases of crown and l)ridgc-work which were discovered in Egypt,
Italy and Greece, were on exhibition at the World's fair in Chicago in 1903.
An Arabian surgeon named Alhucasis, about 1100, A. I)., was a very skill-
ful "carver of human teeth" and made dentures of bone and ivory, and re-
placed lost teeth witli extracted natural ones. An Arabian general who was
slain in battle was identified Viy his false teeth, which were held in place bv
gold wedges and wire.
There were several ancient Arabians who were chielly employed in the
manufacture of artificial teetli.
In the sixteenth century skilled jewelers largely cared for the prosthetic
branch of dentistry, but late in the seventeenth century this science was put
in the hands of men who understood the fundamental principles underlying it.

FRANCE.
Ambroise Pare, who was born in 1517, constructed artificial dentures, hav-
ing as bases, gold and silver. Hemard manufactured ivory dentures in 1633.
In 1738 Fauchard suggested the idea, but did not carry it out, of making
artificial teeth out of porcelain. He made use of springs to hold artificial
teeth in the mouth, and some claim that he was the first to announce the idea
of suction to keep artificial dentures in place. In the above year he published a
complete work on tlie ''Art of Dentistry," comprising anatomy, pathology,
therapeutics, operative and prosthetic technic. He says:
"I have thought that advantage might be derived from a regular and un-
alterable coloration from enamel artificially composed. I have also thought
that I might from this not only perfectly imitate the enamel of teeth, but the
gum, in cases where it is necessary to replace the teeth in whole or in parts of
sets. I have consulted the most able enamelcrs, and by conversations whicli I
have had with them I have rendered practicable that which I believe no one
else has ever thought of ; the teetli or dentures made of enamel will endure a
very considerable time since the enamel is a substance scarcely susceptible of
ciiange or alteration."
In 1756 Bourdet said that he had "used the pink enamel of Fauchard for
gums."
"Hard" porcelain teeth were first invented in 1774 by Duchateau, an apoth-