It is, indeed, in the sixteenth century, and, to be more precise, about the year 1544, that we meet for the first time with a monograph, in which dental affections are spoken of independently of general medicine and surgery. The book we allude to, by WALTER HERMANN RYFF, is also noteworthy because it is not written like the preceding works, in Latin, the customary language of the learned, but, instead, in German, that is, in a living tongue. As we are now mentioning the first German author on Dentistry, it may be permitted us briefly to glance at the beginning of medicine and dental art among the German peoples. Among the Germans, as in other nations, the first to practise the healing art were priests, priestesses, and wise women. To cure disease they used partly empirical remedies, and partly witchcraft and superstitious means of every kind. Thus, to facilitate dentition, it was thought an excellent thing to pass a thread through the eyes of a mouse and then to tie the blood-covered thread around the neck of the child. It was held, besides—and this prejudice has left even until now some traces—that the putting of the milk teeth, when they fall out, into the nest of a mouse assures the cutting of new teeth. We must here mention, with regard to the origin of dentistry among the Germans, a very important fact related by Joseph Linderer,[271] a fact which shows that even among the ancient Germans recourse was had to the application of artificial teeth. We here reproduce the very words of the said author, translated literally: