References to M•ntal operation: are found in the writings of Ilerodedus and Hippocrates in the fifth century it.c. -1.ristotle wrote on this sub ject about me. 350, and IT.•raclides of Tare:Aunt, Ilerophilus. ttlid Erasistratus are recorded as dental operators, three centuries before our era. 1,ee.iriling to the writings of C. Attrelitin,, Erasis tratu, deposited in the temple of the 1)elphian ..1.pollo a leaden `thlontogogue' (forceps), "to prove that (only) those teeth ought to he re moved which are hose or relaxed, and for which a leaden instilment will saitlic.•." ('clouts. who lived about tt.c. 11)0, was the first to recommend the use of the tile in the mouth: saying that the points of a decayed tooth, which hurt the tongue, should be removed with an iron file. Horace I it.c. 65 to 4i), Ovid 14e. 13 to .k.t) 17 or .11arti•l (c.43-1 and other of the ancient (;reek and T.atin poets, allude in their writing: to artificial teeth, as does Cicero. The further history of dentistry is meagre and uncer tain. Before the invention of printing. the meth of recording and transmitting knowledge were so lahurioir. 01111 expensive that Oilly matters of great imp ,•tanee were transcribed. while other matters, of lesser 11111)0 1•1111100. were trans mitted and preserved only by word of mouth. It is to these eondition. that the early his tory of the profession is so imperfect and un certain. The oldest printed book known to dent pity dated 1g:33, printed in ffernian by Peter Jordan. and containing extracts or quotations from the works Of Cfal•n. .Avi
c•nna. Nlestn•, Cornelius, Pliny. and others. This book wa: hiritten for lay readers, by a 11 anony mous writer. and in the chapter treating of de cay of the teeth. the author, quoting from lesue, advises. as one method of treatment. lir-I to scratch and clean with a fine chisel. knife, file, or any other suitable instrument, the parts at lacked, and then to till the cavity with gold leaves for the preservation of the remaining of the tooth. If this quotation is reliable. the ,,petal of 1,,,-th must line been known more than a thousand years mm. tfalen ( t.n. 1 ;ill treated the subject of the teeth more exten sively thon any other of the aneient authors. and his 1111 that topic were the best tip to the time of rallof ins. Enstaehins. and Xfobroise in the sixteenth century. Fauchardwroteon dentistry in 172S, and Bourdet in 1757. John Hunter in 1771 published his Treatise on the Natural Ilistor9 of the Human Teeth, and in 177$ _1 Practical Treatise on Discascs of Teeth. as a supplement to his former work. Not being a dental specialist, however, he wrote ana tomically and philosophically, rather than prac tically. Woofendale's Pi-act/eta Of/serrations on the Human Teeth were published in London in 1783. Blake wrote on dentistry in 17fiS or 1801. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century a considerable alumna of original research has been carried on in all branches of dental science. and a large and increasing number of treatises have been devoted to dentistry exclusively.