In the earlier years of his practice Delpech also published an important paper on the subject of hospital gangrene, under the title: “Mémoire sur la Complication des Plaies et des Ulcères, Connue sous le Nom de ‘Pourriture d’Hôpital’”; Paris, 1815. This memoir is esteemed by his biographer to be the best treatise that had been written on hospital gangrene up to the year 1834.
Delpech, says his biographer, will always be classed as one of the most distinguished professors of the Medical School of Montpellier during the early part of the nineteenth century.
On the 28th of October, 1832, he was assassinated by a merchant of Bordeaux upon whom he had operated for varicocele during the preceding year, and who, immediately after killing his victim, destroyed his own life.
Pierre Fauchard, A. Jourdain and J. B. Gariot.—Although it is the general belief that dentistry did not become a separate and independent branch of surgical practice until a comparatively recent date, there is nevertheless some evidence that efforts were made by certain surgeons, many years ago, to engage in this special field of work. The earliest record of this fact, so far as I have been able to discover, is furnished by Francis Gribble in his book entitled: “Lake Geneva and its Literary Landmarks.” According to his statement a dentist, toward the end of the sixteenth century, applied to the Governing Body of Geneva, Switzerland, for permission to settle in that city and practice his profession. As the civic authorities, however, did not appear to comprehend just how much risk, either to the bodies or to the souls of the Genevese, was involved in granting the desired permission, they referred the question to Théodore de Bèze, the great theologist, who, in the temporary absence of John Calvin, was acting as the Syndic or Mayor of the city. We are not told by Gribble how the matter was at last decided, but there can be scarcely any doubt that the dentist was finally permitted to hang out his shingle and go to work.
The explorations made among the ruins of ancient Egypt show that even at that remote period, three or four hundred years before the Christian Era, there were men who knew how to fill carious cavities in human teeth and to perform other surgical acts which call for the skill and knowledge of the practical dentist. But the discovery of such isolated facts does not demonstrate clearly that dentistry was practiced at that early period as a special department of the surgical art; and, furthermore, many centuries after that date elapsed before there was discovered any further evidence that dentistry had survived during the long intervening period. In fact, the records do not throw much light on this subject until we reach the seventeenth century. Then it appears that a certain Alexandre Poteler, during the latter part of that century, attained considerable celebrity, in France, as a skilful and experienced dental surgeon. Further details concerning this man are lacking.
Sprengel, in his history of medicine, mentions the names of several men—Germans, French and English—who during the early part of the eighteenth century occasionally performed operations in the field of dentistry, but among this number I find only three who appear to have attained eminence in their special line of work—viz., Pierre Fauchard, A. Jourdain, and J. B. Gariot. I will furnish here the few details which I have been able to obtain concerning the career of these men.
Pierre Fauchard was born in France toward the end of the seventeenth century. After receiving the regular training of a physician he entered the service of the Royal Navy, ultimately attaining the rank of Surgeon-Major. Subsequently, having first taken a special course of instruction under Alexandre Poteler, he settled at Paris and practiced dentistry in that city for a period of more than fifty years. During the course of his career he published a treatise on the surgery of the mouth, and in the preparation of this work he received efficient aid from Jean Devaux (1649–1729), one of the most learned surgeons of his time in France. This treatise, according to the testimony of his biographer, contains many reports of cases which were observed by Fauchard in actual practice; and, he adds, the book still possesses considerable value as a work of reference. Among the unusual pathological conditions described and occasionally pictured the following deserve to receive special mention:—“Abscess or Softening of the Dental Pulp without Recognizable Alteration of the Cortical Substance” (relief was obtained by trephining the tooth); “Defective Teeth of Many Different Kinds,” and the proper manner of remedying such defects, both in cases where only a part of the tooth is defective, and also in those where it is found necessary to supply an entire tooth or even several teeth; “On the Art of Remedying Defects in the Palate”; “On the More Extensive Employment of Lead Fillings, etc.” The treatise here referred to bears the following title: “Le Chirurgien Dentiste, ou Traité des Dents, etc.,” with 40 engraved plates; 2 vols., Paris, 1728; a second edition, which was published in 1746, contains many important additions.