Bell advises great caution in carrying out transplantation, it having been proved by many examples that contagious maladies of a serious nature may easily be communicated in this way from one individual to another.[522]
In the case of a young woman who had an upper incisor transplanted, Watson observed undoubted symptoms of syphilitic infection with supervening accidents of exceptional gravity, which in spite of careful treatment ended in death.[523]
Hunter also relates having observed, in seven cases of transplantation, very serious accidents which, however, he did not believe to be owing to syphilis, although bearing a certain symptomatic resemblance to it. Contrariwise, the well-known German surgeon Richter not only admitted the possibility of transmitting syphilis through a transplanted tooth, but even that the transplantation of an altogether healthy tooth from the mouth of a person undoubtedly free from syphilis might be followed by serious accidents of a syphilitic nature, and this because the possible existence of a latent syphilis in the person to whose mouth the tooth was transplanted cannot be excluded; in which case the abnormal stimulus exercised by the transplanted tooth might very well give rise to syphilitic manifestations. Therefore, the fact that the person who furnished the tooth was and continued to be in a state of perfect health (as precisely in the case cited by Watson) would not be sufficient proof that the accidents ensuing on the transplantation might not be of a syphilitic nature.
Lettson also observed, in certain cases of transplantation, accidents of more or less gravity which he held to be due to syphilis, calling, however, to mind a case cited by Kuhn, of Philadelphia, where the possibility of syphilis was not to be thought of, as the morbid symptoms disappeared entirely, without any treatment, as soon as the transplanted tooth was removed.[524]
August G. Richter, the above-named German surgeon, in those portions of his work dedicated to dental affections and diseases of Highmore’s antrum, treated these subjects with admirable clearness and order, without contributing, however, anything original to the development of dental surgery.[525]
Nicholas Dubois de Chemant, in 1788, of whom we shall later have occasion to speak again, published in Paris his first pamphlet on mineral teeth, entitled Sur les avantages des nouvelles dents, et rateliers artificiels, incorruptibles, sans odeur.
Jean Jacques Joseph Serre (1759 to 1830). Among the dentists of the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, a special mention is due to Jean Jacques Joseph Serre. He was born at Mons, in Belgium, but his remarkable practical and scientific activity was chiefly called into exercise in Vienna and in Berlin. He published several works, the most important of which is a practical treatise on dental operations.[526]
Among his minor works, one edited in Vienna, in 1788, treats of toothache during pregnancy; another, printed in Leipsic in 1791, treats most extensively of diseases of the gums; a third speaks of the mode of maintaining the teeth and gums in good condition. This little book of dental hygiene, like the rest of Serre’s books, met with great favor, and went through two editions in a brief space of time (Berlin, 1809 to 1812).
The works of this author show great study, very wide practice, and an admirable spirit of observation and research. They had the merit of greatly contributing to raise the level of dental culture in Germany, and one finds in them a pretty nearly complete account of the dentistry of that period. Apart from this, they possess a special interest because of the vast number of dates and important historical facts therein contained.
As it would be useless here to enter into a minute analysis of the contents of these books, we will limit ourselves to mentioning a few ideas of which Serre was a strenuous supporter.