The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-18

more soudn in respects to their chewing l apparatus than blondes.
 A veteran army surgeon tells me, in this connection, of some of the means resorted to by drafted men to escape
 service. "A man in one of the Ohio
 districts" said he, presenting himself before our board, claimed exemption from service on account of loss of
 teeth On being asked how long they 1 had been out, he said, 1.-Two weeks. " ] Thrusting his hand to the bottom of a | long pocket in his jeans he exhibited i twelve sound teeth which had been re-
 gently extracted. This and similar
 cases settled the mooted question
 whether man can brave cold steel, yet
 cover at the thought of powder and lead.
 Before civil war times, and when the
 old-fashioned muzzle-loaders were in
 use, it was even more important that a
 soldier possess sound front teeth, wherewith to "bite his cartridges" ] While loading his gun the old time sol-
 'dier had to tear with his teeth the pa
 per binding his cartridge. Breech- loading rifles with metallic cartridges, of course, put an end to this necessity, | Considering the fact that dentists
 have not hitherto been a part of our
 military establishment, it is of interest
 to know that dentistry became intro duced into the United States through
 our Revolutionary war. Previous to
 that time the colonists depended for their dentistry mostly upon the village l,, ,,uloo,, n.1,o al
 bled a vein.''
 The barber long rendered this impor- tant service in the old world-not that
 dentistry is a new science, for it Is, in fact, very old one. In the tombs of
 ancient Egypt, I am told by archaeol-
 ogists, have been found artificial teeth
 of wood and ivory, mounted upon gold
 plates. The teeth of some of the num-
 mics found at Thebes were actually
 found to have been filled with gold and
 white cement. Similar remains of the
 Ttruscans have proved that those an-
 cient people wound gold wire around
 their natural teeth for the purpose of
 holding in place artificial teeth, manu-
 factured to fill gaps But during the
 middle ages dentistry went into the
 hands of the blacksmith and barber.
 The monks were somewhat skilled in it's practice, but early in the fourteenth
 century council of the Roman Cath olic church, held in Paris, decreed that monks and priests be forbidden to per- form bloody operations. The draw ing of a tooth was so classed-rightful- ly, indeed-and thus was the dentists art left for a while solely to the barber and blacksmith, and later to the barber alone.
 But this is how dentistry came to this country through the Revolutionary war I find in the surgeon generals H. brary record which shows that in 177S there came to tn7s country with the French fleet a soldier, one pr. Joseph Lemaire, who was also dentist While the French and American armies were in winter quarters, side by side near Providence, R. l., Lemaire attend ed to the. teeth of the soldiers of both forces. From Count Rochambeau, commanding general of the French, he obtained permission to teach the den- tai art to several young American sol diers. He later established for himself a large practice in Philadelphia. One of Lenlaire's pupils was Josiah Flagg, an American Revolutionary soldier, who became a regularly established dentist and who later enlisted in the second war with Great Britain. But in these two wars dentistry must have been crude and clumsy profession. Laughing gas'' and other anesthetics were unknown.
 The surgeon generals museum con- tains collection of the curious surgical used in the armies of these periods Legs and arms were merci- lessly sliced off with great sickles with curved blades, and all of this was done while the patient was wide awake, or perhaps unconscious from sheer agony or loss of blood. Antiseptic surgery was unknown. Surgical instruments had soft wooden handles, wherein mil crobes could roost and propagate to their hearts content. Dental instru- ments were equally as crude.
 I further found in the surgeon gene ral's library the copy of an ancient let ter explaining how the foremost of Rev soldiers availed himself of | the skill-or lack of skill-of these pio- | neer dentists John Greenwood, a soldier, who had learned | his science from his father, an English | amigrant to the colonies, established | himself in New York as practicing | dentist after the war closed
 From the tusk of a hippopotamus Dr. Greenwood carved out a full set of ar tificial teeth for George aWashington, which the great general wore while he was president They were retained in he mouth by pair of spiral springs, pressing the two sets apart when the mouth opened-all of which probably accounts for the set expression of the irst presidents jaws. The letter above 'eferred to was received by Washing on from Dr. Greenwood, who wrote: Sir: I send you inclosed two sets of eeth, one fixed on the old bases, in )art and the set you sent me from which, when I received it, vas very black, occasioned either by rour soaking them in port wine or by rour drinking it. . I advise you 0 either take them out after dinner md put hem in clean water, and put on mother set or clean them with a brush md some chalk scraped fine" This pi- ,neer dentist of the presidential house. lold then instructs he Father of his Country how to plug up holes worn in> is false teeth with sealing wax pressed n with hot nail. He concludes: If