The first part of my work, which I now offer to the public, comprises the remote origin of Dentistry and its development throughout the ages as far as the end of the eighteenth century. In a short time I hope to publish the second part of it, viz., the History of Dentistry during the last hundred years.

I have carefully collected the greatest possible number of historical data, keeping in view the consideration that some facts, although of little value in themselves, may possess a certain importance for the student desirous of procuring historical information relating to some particular point of dental science.

If this book should, as I hope it may, contribute to the diffusion of exact historical knowledge as to the origin and gradual development of dentistry, my labor will not have been lost, for it will have realized the object, a highly practical one, which has guided me in writing it.

Vincenzo Guerini.

CONTENTS.

PART I.
FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY.
CHAPTER I.
Dental Art among the Egyptians[19]
CHAPTER II.
The Hebrews[32]
CHAPTER III.
Dentistry among the Chinese[34]
CHAPTER IV.

Customs Relating to the Teeth among Different Primitive Peoples

[42]
CHAPTER V.
The Greeks[45]
CHAPTER VI.
Dental Art among the Etruscans[67]
CHAPTER VII.
The Romans[77]
PART II.
SECOND PERIOD—THE MIDDLE AGES.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Arabians[121]
CHAPTER IX.
Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries[140]
PART III.
THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES.
CHAPTER X.
The Sixteenth Century[161]
CHAPTER XI.
The Seventeenth Century[218]
CHAPTER XII.
The Eighteenth Century[255]