The end I proposed to myself was to write a History of Dentistry which should be much more complete, more circumstantial, and more exact than those published hitherto, and which, instead of being, as are many of these works, simply a compilation, should represent, at least in part, the fruits of personal research and scrupulous examination of a vast number of works of various kinds containing elements utilizable for the purpose. The first part of my work, which I now offer to the public, comprises the remote origin of Dentistry and its development throughout the ages as far as the end of the eighteenth century. In a short time I hope to publish the second part of it, viz., the History of Dentistry during the last hundred years. I have carefully collected the greatest possible number of historical data, keeping in view the consideration that some facts, although of little value in themselves, may possess a certain importance for the student desirous of procuring historical information relating to some particular point of dental science. If this book should, as I hope it may, contribute to the diffusion of exact historical knowledge as to the origin and gradual development of dentistry, my labor will not have been lost, for it will have realized the object, a highly practical one, which has guided me in writing it. VINCENZO GUERINI. CONTENTS. PART I. FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY. CHAPTER I. DENTAL ART AMONG THE EGYPTIANS 19 CHAPTER II. THE HEBREWS 32 CHAPTER III. DENTISTRY AMONG THE CHINESE 34 CHAPTER IV. CUSTOMS RELATING TO THE TEETH AMONG DIFFERENT PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 42 CHAPTER V. THE GREEKS 45 CHAPTER VI. DENTAL ART AMONG THE ETRUSCANS 67 CHAPTER VII. THE ROMANS 77 PART II. SECOND PERIOD—THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAPTER VIII. THE ARABIANS 121 CHAPTER IX. THIRTEENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 140 PART III. THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES. CHAPTER X. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 161 CHAPTER XI. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 218 CHAPTER XII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 255 INTRODUCTION.