The same may be said as to the assertions of Wilkinson and Forbes with regard to mummies’ teeth stopped with gold. Where and by whom were these mummies found? And where are they preserved? Was the stopping, too, verified at the time of the finding of the mummy, in such a manner as to exclude all possibility of fraud, or was it discovered afterward, in circumstances such as to suggest the possibility of a mistification? It has, in fact, been reported[16] that the pretended Egyptian stopping in a mummy existing in an English museum was nothing else than a practical joke, carried out, besides, in a very awkward manner. In opposition to the above assertions, we have the most absolute contradictory statements on the part of the most competent authorities. The celebrated Egyptologist, Prof. George Ebers, has only been able, in spite of the most accurate research, to arrive at completely negative results in all that has reference to the dental art of the ancient Egyptians.[17] The distinguished craniologist Prof. Emil Schmidt, of Leipzig, who owns a collection of several hundred mummies’ skulls, writes thus on the question now before us: “In no jaw have I ever found anything that could be attributed to the work of dentists: no fillings, no filing or trepanning of teeth, no prosthesis.”[18] Virchow, who also examined a great many Egyptian skulls, among which were several belonging to royal mummies, did not find any indications of dentists’ work;[19] and Mummery, as well, although he made the most conscientious researches on this subject, could not arrive at any positive results whatever.[20] Between the affirmations of some and the negations of others, it is very difficult to say on which side the truth lies. For my own part, I fail to find that there is the least proof of the ancient Egyptians having known how to insert gold fillings and still less to apply pivot teeth. But at the same time I think it cannot be doubted that the Egyptian dentists knew how to apply artificial teeth. And even though it may not be possible to demonstrate this by direct proof, one is equally prone to admit it when one considers, on the one hand, the remarkable ability of the ancient Egyptians in all plastic arts, and, on the other hand, the great importance they attributed to the beautifying of the human body; so much so, that even in so ancient a document as the Ebers’ papyrus, one finds formulæ for medicaments against baldness, for lotions for the hair, and other kinds of cosmetics. Is it likely, therefore, that so refined and ingenious a people should not have found the means of remedying the deformity resulting from the loss of one or more front teeth? Fortunately, however, we are not bound to content ourselves with simple suppositions, for a well-authenticated archæological discovery made in the month of May, 1862, has put us in possession of an irrefutable proof.