Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/29

 DENTATUS DENTISTRY serpula among the annelids, noticing, how- ever, certain characters recalling the mollus- can structure. This shell has recently been brought into notice by Prof. E. S. Morse, who 1. Shell of Dentalium entalis. 2. Shell magnified and frac- tured, showing animal contracted. 3. Animal at the mo- ment of advancing from the shell. 4. Animal magnified, abdominal aspect. 5. Animal magnified and cut open, showing internal formation. 6. Animal magnified, dorsal aspect. has found in it many different characters in- teresting from a Darwinian point of view, and suggesting the development of the branch of mollusks from dentalium or some animal re- sembling it, which had been derived from some annelid form. Dentalium, according to him, points to the acephala in the absence of a head, to the gasteropods by the lingual teeth, to the pteropods by the wing-like expansions, and to the cephalopods by the many tentacles of the embryo. Whether these indicate deriva- tion or not, the union of annelid peculiarities with those of all the classes of mollusks is cer- tainly unusual and interesting. The common species of the Atlantic, the I), entalis (Linn.), is about inch long and  inch in diameter at the anterior end, tapering to a dull point. DENTATUS, Manins (or Marcus) Cnrins, a Roman consul, flourished in the first half of the 3d cen- tury B. 0. In 290 he became consul and de- feated the Samnites ; in 275, during his second consulship, he vanquished Pyrrh us in two great battles ; in 274 he was elected consul a third time, and was victorious over the Samnites, -.ucanians, and Bruttians. On the conclusion his third consulship he retired to a small inn in the Sabine territory, and cultivated with his own hands. While he was thus igaged, the Samnites sent an embassy to him ith costly presents. They found him sitting the hearth cooking vegetables for his dinner. [e rejected their gifts, telling them he would ther rule over those who possessed wealth lan possess it himself. In 272 he was made censor, in which capacity he constructed an aqueduct from the Anio (Teverone) into the city, and by a canal he carried off the water of the lake Velinus (Velino) to the Nar (Nera), and thus gave to the Reateans a large tract of excellent land. He is said to have been born with teeth ; hence his surname of Dentatus. DENTISTRY (Lat. dem, tooth), the surgical treatment of the teeth, and the manufacture and fitting of artificial teeth. Although it is only within less than a century that dentistry has taken the rank of a distinct profession, at- tention was directed from the earliest periods to the means of preserving and improving the beauty of the teeth. In the time of Herodo- tus dentistry appears to have been practised in Egypt as a distinct branch of surgery, as was also the treatment of the diseases of the eye and of the ear. Little, however, is known of the attainments of these early prac- titioners. In the ancient tombs of this people artificial teeth of ivory or wood were found by Belzoni and others, some of which were fastened upon gold plates. It is also stated that teeth of the mummies have been found filled with gold. Thus it would seem that the ancient Egyptians understood processes of the art which are commonly regarded only as in- ventions of modern times. Artificial teeth are alluded to by several of the Greek and Latin poets, as Ovid, Martial, and Horace. The works of Galen, written in the 2d century, contain the earliest treatises upon this subject, and they continued to be the best until the works of Fallopius, Eustachius, and Ambroise Par6 appeared in the 16th century. During the 18th century the attention of many medical men in France and England was directed to the subject, and a number of elaborate works were published devoted exclusively to the art of dentistry. These, and prominently among them the treatise of John Hunter (1771-'8), laid the foundation of the English school of dentistry. The subject, however, was treated anatomically and philosophically rather than practically ; and the same may be said of the writings of the eminent French surgeon of this period, Bichat. Neither of these was a prac- tical dentist, and the subsequent publications of Dr. Blake in 1798, and of Fox in 1803 and 1806, as of others at later dates, served rather to elucidate the physiology of the teeth and the nature of the diseases to which they are subject than the method of treating them. From advertisements in the newspapers of 1803 the practice of making teeth and clean- ing them appears to have been in the hands of silversmiths or jewellers. In 1826 the " Princi- ples of Dental Surgery," by Leonard Koecker, M. D., who had practised dentistry from 1807 to 1822 in Baltimore and Philadelphia, ap- peared in London, and fully established the claims of the art to take rank as a distinct branch of science. From that time new trea- tises have continued frequently to appear. The progress of the French school was very rapid in the early part of the present century. Prof. Baumes's treatise on first dentition and the diseases that accompany it appeared in 1805, and about the same time a work on the theory and practice of the art by Laforgue. A num- ber of works were published by Delabarre be- tween 1815 and 1826 on different subjects re- lating to the teeth and their treatment. Among them is a treatise on "Mechanical Dentistry," published in 1820, and illustrated with 42 plates.