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HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGEKY
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knowledge spurred the wits of the world, and civilization proceeded by leaps
and bounds, aided by her handmaids, art, literature and science.
In 1543, at Basil, a treatise was published "De Corporis Humani Fabrica,"
by Vesalius, tlie first comprehensive and systematic description of the human
body. Breaking down the traditions of some fourteen centuries, it formed
the foundation of the modern science of anatomy. Vesalius obtained his knowl-
edge from facts revealed by his scalpel on the human body. His teachings
were so fiercely opposed Ity the physicians of the Galenean schools that, rather
than admit the fallibility of (ialen, they declared the human body had under-
gone changes since the time of their long reverenced master. Vesalius, in his
observations on the teeth, considered the temporary teeth as the germs of the
permanent.
During tlie vear 15-tl, the first separate publication on the teeth appeared,
a quarto volume '-Zahnarzuey," at Frankfort, by Chr. Engenolff, a translation
of which appears in the "Dental Cosmos" of January, 1887.
Literature, arts and the sciences tlirive when there is quiet confidence in
the government, and freedom from foreign influence. During the last half
of the sixteenth, and the first quarter of the seventeenth centuries, France
was engaged in the Huguenot wars, Spain was occupied in her rain endeavor to
suppress the revolt of the Netherlands, while Germany, the country which
had seen the hirth of the Reformation under Luther, and had been distracted
for more than a generation, was restored to quiet with the Peace of Augsburg.
Externally she was at peace, and save tlie internal hostilities occasioned by
the irreconcilable character of creeds, was enjoying a period of tranquility.
During this period no less than fourteen contributions were made to dental
literature, showing that the teeth had commanded the attention of the Teu-
tonic mind. Among them are RyfF's treatise on the eyes and teeth, published
at Wuerzburg in 1548 ; another, "Zahnarzney," by Bodenstein, at Frankfort,
in 1576; Monavius,' "De Dentium AfFectibus" at Basil, in 1578; Heurnius,'
"Eyes, Ears and Teeth," at Leyden, 1603 ; and "Zahnarzney-Buechlein," an
anonymous pamphlet, compiled from the works of Galen and others, in 161-t,
the earliest known edition of which under the title of "Artzney Buchlein,"
was published 1533. Considering the large place occupied by "das Essen," it
is perhaps only natural that Germany should take an early interest in striving
to preserve the teeth.
In Spain, De Castrillo lirought out an octavo volume, "De Dentitione,"
in 1557, at Valladolid, followed by a second edition at Madrid, in 1570:
Martinez, a treatise at Valladolid, in 1557 ; while in Italy, Eustachius pub-