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360 HISTOEY OF DENTAL SUEGERY

the ill fated Alexandrian Library of 700,000 volumes, we might have dis-
( overed the first contributions to dental literature.
Hippocrates, B. C. 460, the founder of Greek medicine, gives us in his
medical writings, the earliest known literature pertaining to the teeth.
Wliether his jirecepts could be found useful today may be judged from his
theory of the origin of the teeth : "There is a glutinous increment from the
bones of the head and jaws of which the fatty part is dried by heat, and burnt
up, and the teeth are made harder than the other bones because there is
nothing cold in them."
Hippocrates gives a crude description of the diseases of tlie teeth, advises
their removal when loose and decayed, recommends actual cautery, and men-
tions a mode of fixing them with wire wlien the jaw lias been fractured. He
was the inventor of probably the first dentifrice, made by pulverizing the in-
cinerated remains of the head of a hare and three mice, with which was mixed
equal parts of powdered marble.
Aristotle, pupil of Plato and tutor of Alexander the Great, has left on
record his belief that the male sex possess more teeth than the female; that all
mammals have teeth, but not always in both jaws; that the teeth continue to
grow during life, but that the bones have a fixed limit to their growth.
Eristratus speaks of the lead forceps in the temple of Apollo, at Delphi,
and Herophilus relates several cases where extraction of a tooth proved fatal.
The writers just quoted lived during the period of Greek history when
sculptural art reached its zenith, a state of perfection since unequaled. But
their worship of the outward beauty of the body was accompanied by the strong-
est prejudice against its mutilation, even for so laudable a purpose as the studv
of its striicture. Hence, the fanciful ideas regarding many of the organs
which continued unchanged until a later period, when the Greek physicians
at Alexandria, under the influence of Egyptian practices of embalming, pro-
moted their knowledge of anatomy.
Celsus, in his "De Medicina," gives directions for extracting, and instruc-
tions relative to some dental operations.
Aretaens, an able Greek medical writer of Cappadocia, asserts the cause
of toothache to be known only to God.
Pliny (b. 23 A. D.) distinguishes the indestructibility of tlie teeth as com-
pared to bone.
Galen (b. 130 A.D.) studied with the most eminent medical teachers of
Smyrna, Corinth and Alexandria, during which time he was a laborious dis-
sector of animals, and attained a high degree of medical and anatomical