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History of Orthodontia

By S. H. Guilford, A. M., D. D. S., Ph. D.

Professor of Operative and Prosthetic Dentistry and Orthodontia in the
Pliiladelphia Dental College.

THE beginning of this pnrtioiilar branch or subdivision of dental prac-
tice, like tliose of niany of the other arts and sciences, is lost in obscur-
ity. That it is of comparatively recent origin is shown by the fact that
l.'ut one reference is made to it by the medical wiiters of the sixteenth and
none, so far as we have Ijeen able to discover, by those of the seventeenth cen-
tury. This may be attributed to three causes.
1. Previous to the sixteentli or even the seventeenth century, medicine,
from which dentistry naturally sprang, was in a very crude and elementary
condition. Occupied with the jjroblcms of diseases in general and seeking
after remedies for their alleviation and cure, the practitioners of those days
naturally had little inclination to address themselves to the correction of
deformities which were deemed of minor importance and which entailed no
actual suffering upon, or even marked inconvenience to the individual.
2. With the limited knowledge that tlien prevailed both with regard to
the minute anatomy of the parts involved and their true piiysiological func-
tions, it was quite natural that the surgeons, or the "barber-surgeons," should
have hesitated to attempt any extensive clianging of the position of tlie teeth
even had they desired to do so.
3. For such surgical operations as were imperatively demanded the instru-
ments of that day were of the crudest character, and while thev served their
purpose for major operations would liave been f|uite unfitted for such delicate
work as would be called for in the oral cavity.
Observing that teeth did often cliange their positions without apparent
cause, it is quite probable that at a very early period surgeons advised resort-
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