It would, therefore, be wrong to believe that the dental art was created, for the most part, by Fauchard, and one clearly perceives, from the perusal of his work, that although he made most important contributions to this specialty, which he cultivated with passion, nevertheless, the greater part of the things therein treated of were already known before his time, although no reference to them is to be found in previous works; and this for the reasons we have already suggested. The highest merit of Fauchard consists, still more than in his inventions and improvements, in his having most ably collected and incorporated in a single work the whole doctrine of dental art, theoretical as well as practical, thus setting in full light the importance of the specialty, and giving it a solid scientific basis. France is therefore the first country where modern dentistry reached a high degree of development and also the first country where, earlier than elsewhere, that is, about 1700, the dentists began to form a well-defined class, to belong to which it was necessary to pass a special examination. This examination, as we learn from Fauchard, was held before a commission of which no dentist formed a part, and exactly for this reason gave but negative results and responded but little to its intended aim. The greater number of those who were authorized to practise dentistry after undergoing this examination showed a professional ability below mediocrity. Nevertheless, although few in number, good and able dentists were in no way wanting, as clearly appears from the preface to Fauchard’s work, and better still from the following paragraph,[411] wherein the author speaks of the great perfection reached by dental surgery in Paris: “The teeth and the other parts of the mouth being subject, as we have seen in the course of this work, to so many important diseases, requiring the aid of the most able dentists, it is strange that the sovereigns of foreign countries, the heads of republics, and also the administrators of our own provinces do not provide for the expense of sending young surgeons to Paris, to be instructed in a part of surgery so essential, and, notwithstanding, so ignored and neglected everywhere excepting in this great city, where it has reached its highest perfection, both as regards the embellishment of the mouth and the cure of diseases, often of a most serious nature. These scholars would, thereafter, form others and would render great services to their nation and to their fellow citizens.”