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HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY 367

Ilighniore, in 1651, immortalized his name bj' rlescribing the maxillary
sinus. Wharton published, in 1669, his observations on the glands, and Steno,
at Leyden in 1680, gave to the world the results of his investigations relative
to the glands and ducts of the mouth, eyes and nose.
At the dawn of the eighteenth century, unhappy France was torn and
ravaged by foreign and i-ivil wars provoked by the ambition and greed of
Ivouis XIV ; but her men of science led the world, and dentistry had its share
in tlie advance, and began to be recognized by medical literature as a separate
profession. The intricate anatomy of the mouth and jaws had been sufficiently
;'.nalyzed and described for practical purposes, and the ground work prepared
upon which the future system of dental surgery was to be erected. The
patient researches of individual workers resulted in the accumulation of much
material, and awaited the coming of one of those master spirits whose advent
i^eems a response to the beckoning of science, that his magic hand, with in-
tuitive skill, may so array her truths as to afford the ordinary mind material
for deduction during the ages that succeed him.
Such a character appeared in the person of Pierre Fauchard. He was
born in the days of "Le Grand Monarque," and the work he bequeathed to
posterity stands forth in the history of dental literature as prominentl}^ as does
the gorgeous splendor of the court of Louis XIV in the history of the political
world. It was written when France was swiftly descending toward the al)yss
of the Revolution, and the foreshadowing of further discoveries in dental
surgery bespoke for him a far more lasting monument than the records of
monstrous egotism and selfishness left by his king.
When Fauchard located in Paris, in 1719, he found a spirit of jealousy
and little disposition to share knowledge. Realizing the necessity of a broader
education, he laments the fact that provisions are not made by authorities to
bring about this end. No better illustration of his liroadness of mind can be
given than the statement in making known a certain improvement : "To the
prejudice of my own interests, I now give the most exact description of this
invention." It is impossilile, within the limits of this article, to enter into
detail the contents of his work, but a hasty examination must suffice. The
first edition of his work, '"Le Chirurgien-dentiste," was published in Paris,
in 1728, in two duodecimo volumes, making 919 pages, with forty-three page
illustrations. A second edition appeared in 1746, and a German translation
in 1733. Although many appliances described seem crude, others have con-
tinued in use to the present day. He describes the structure, position and con-
nection of teeth, sets aside the old theories of dental worms, and gives as the