It is to be noted, with regard to the Etruscan dental appliances above described, that the gold bands of which they were constructed covered a considerable part of the dental crown, so that these prosthetic appliances certainly could not have had the pretension of escaping the notice of others, they being, on the contrary, most visible. It is in consequence to be surmised that in those times the wearing of false teeth and other kinds of dental appliance was not a thing to be ashamed of; indeed, that it rather constituted a luxury, a sort of refinement only accessible to persons of means. Besides this, as the gold in which these works were carried out was of the purest quality and in consequence very soft, the appliances would not have possessed sufficient solidity if the softness of the pure gold had not been counteracted by the width and thickness of the bands or strips. [Illustration: FIG. 23 Etruscan appliance (found in 1865 in a tomb by Cervetri), destined perhaps to support a purely ornamental artificial substitute. (Belonging to Castellani’s collection, Rome.)] [Illustration: FIG. 24 A reproduction of the gold piece forming the appliance seen in Fig. 23.] In those of the Etruscan appliances destined for the application of inserted teeth, the gum was not made to support the prosthesis, and did not, therefore, suffer any compression from the extraneous body, this resting entirely, like a bridge, upon the neighboring teeth. From which it may be seen that twenty-five centuries and more before our time the Etruscans dentists already practised a system of bridge work, and, relatively to the age, carried it out with sufficient ability. CHAPTER VII. THE ROMANS. For many centuries the Romans, according to the saying of Pliny, lived entirely “without doctors, although not without medicine;”[108] that is, there existed without doubt a popular medicine and also a sacerdotal medicine, but still there were no persons whose exclusive occupation it was to cure disease. The medical art, properly so called, was introduced into Rome by the Greeks. The first Greek doctor who went to Rome was Archagathus (in the year 535 after the foundation of the city, that is, 218 years before Christ). His arrival was at first welcomed, so much so that he was made a Roman citizen and a shop bought for him in the Acilian square, at the expense of the State. However, his popularity was of brief duration. Being an intrepid operator, the use and abuse he made of steel and fire gained for him the not very honorable qualification of the butcher, and he soon became the horror of all the population.