JOHN HUNTER, the celebrated surgeon, must be named among the most illustrious champions of odontology in England. He was born February 13, 1728. His first instructor in medical studies was his brother, William Hunter, a scientist of great merit, whose school of anatomy in London was attended by numerous students from all parts of the British Kingdom. Under so excellent a guide John Hunter made rapid progress, and in less than twenty years became the most famous physiologist and professor of surgery of that day. He was surgeon-general to the English army. His _Natural History of the Human Teeth_ (London, 1771) and his _Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Teeth_ (London, 1778) initiated in England a new epoch for the dental art, which, abandoning its blind empiricism, began to take its stand on the basis of rigorous scientific observation. But although Hunter’s merits were great with respect to the scientific development of odontology, we must remember that he was a general surgeon, and not a dentist, and that precisely for this reason he had not, neither could he have, other than a restricted personal experience relative to the treatment of dental diseases. This explains why the anatomical and physiological part of Hunter’s works on the teeth is so far superior to the part concerning practical treatment. Indeed, in the field of practice, this author often falls into grave contradictions, and is frequently hesitating and uncertain on important points of dental therapeutics.