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8 HISTORY OF DEKTAL SURGERY

predecessors i)ffore they entered upon practice. Who determined the possessioii
of this knowledge, and what standard of test candidates for practice were
submitted to, does not appear. This authority also states the dentists of
Egypt adopted the nietliod long practiced in Europe "of stuffing teeth with gold,
jjroofs of which have been obtained from some mummies in Thebes." It is also
claimed by this authority that in a collection of Egyptian antiquities at
Liverpool there are two pieces of artificial teeth, one of five teeth carved in
bone, the other of two teeth of sycamore wood, and set in gold; and that "Dr.
Purland has in his collection a tooth that is pivoted to a stump in the head of a
mummv," and that Belzoni and others discovered artilicial teeth made of
sycamore wood in the sarcophagi of the Egyptians.

ETRUSCAN ANT) ROMAN ANTIQUITY.
Etruria embraced that portion of modern Italy lying northwest of the
Tiber and south of the Arno. It contains many forgotten buried and plowed-
over tombs erected by the Etruscans to honor and preserve the bodies of their
people of distinction. Some of these, by the aid and under the direction of
the Italian government, were exhumed and exjjlored during the last quarter of
the nineteenth century. Tlie discoveries made have supplied indisputable
evidence that this people, who lived here from about a thousand years to
about two lumdred years before the Christian era, liad a high civilization and
were well advanced in knowledge, wealth and arts. They also lead us to believe
that_tliey sulfered from dental diseases and _po_ssessed skill in prosthetic
dentistry. Where these Etruscans came from, and just when they came, is
shrouded in doubt, and the time of their disappearance and whither they
went seems uncertain also. It is certain that their era antedates that of
Ihe first known Roman who practiced upon tlie teeth. They became extinct
before the advent of the Caesars. Their language is equally extinct, and
archaeologists are said to be baffled at deciphering the inscriptions within
these tombs.
The Museum of Corneto-Tarquinius, near Civita A'ecchia, contains some
specimens of prosthetic dentistry taken from a tomb near there, which is
credited with having been built five hundred years before Christ. These
specimens which are here reproduced were described by Dr. J. G. VanMarter
of Rome, Italy, in an article published in the Independent Practitioner in
January, 188.5. He says:
"No. 1 represents the front view of an arrangement for holding in position