Dental surgery properly so called has been entirely neglected by Heurn. He was perhaps so persuaded of the efficacy of the above-mentioned remedies as to believe that every other species of intervention was useless. On the contrary, he does not abstain from speaking very seriously of the miraculous virtues of certain remedies (serpent scales, dog’s teeth, etc.); and tells us, among other things, that the broth made from a frog, when held for a length of time in the mouth, soothes dental pains, whatever be the causes from which they originate. One would seem to have gone back again to the days of Pliny! THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN TOOTH. In 1593 a rumor spread throughout Germany of a great marvel that had appeared at Schweidnitz in Silesia: a golden tooth had erupted in the mouth of a child aged seven years, which, more precisely designated, was the first large molar on the left of the lower jaw. In our days news of such a kind would be immediately qualified, and universally held to be an imposture. But three centuries ago the most marvellous and unlikely things were easily believed in, often even by the learned; and, therefore, the fact alluded to was taken into serious consideration, so much so that for a long time many learned pamphlets and dissertations were written concerning it. JACOB HORST, Physician and Professor of Medicine at the Julius University in Helmstadt, published, in 1595, a very singular book on the golden tooth of the Silesian child.[327] Without raising any doubt as to the reality of the fact, he maintained that the phenomenon was produced from the effect partly of natural and partly of supernatural causes, in relation with the constellation under which the child was born. On the day of its birth, that is, December 22, 1585, the sun was in conjunction with Saturn in the sign of Aries. In consequence of this circumstance the nutritive force had developed marvellously on account of the increase in heat, and consequently, instead of osseous substance, golden matter had been secreted!