Waterloo teeth
Waterloo teeth ( English Waterloo teeth ) are teeth that were taken from the fallen in the Battle of Waterloo (1815) and sold as dentures .
Description and historical classification
In the early 19th century, ivory was the common material used to make artificial teeth and dental plates. The porcelain teeth , first made in France by Nicolas Dubois de Chémant , were fragile, unnaturally white, and also had the disadvantage of grinding when they rubbed against each other. In addition to prostheses, some dentists also sold human teeth, which were often captured by corpse bats from tombs and battlefields.
The source of origin of the Waterloo teeth was the battlefields of Waterloo, where tens of thousands of dead and wounded lay. The teeth were removed from the fallen with healthy teeth. The bats are said to have broken teeth out of wounded people who were still alive. The trade in these teeth grew to such an extent that a separate term was later developed for them, namely Waterloo teeth .
“In the biography of the famous English surgeon Astley Cooper there is also much talk of the well-known“ resurrection men ”who, as the readers already know, not only steal corpses from graves in England in order to sell them to doctors, but also run other businesses on the side, namely supplying dentists with teeth. [...] A number of such men followed the English army in the war on the Spanish peninsula with the sole intention of breaking the teeth of the dead. A single one is said to have brought back teeth from the battlefield at Waterloo for fifty thousand thalers and sold them. As Astley Cooper assures, the harvest of these night birds on the battlefields in Germany was even more abundant. "
Many people wore Waterloo teeth without knowing where they came from. According to traditional accounts, a row of human teeth could be bought in England for 20 to 30 guineas . In Bransby Blake Cooper's The Life of Sir Astley Cooper , a fellow says:
“Oh, sir, let’s be another battle, and we’ll no longer run out of teeth. I pull them as fast as the men fall. "
Another “reservoir” for human teeth was the American Civil War (1861 to 1865). There, too, teeth were extracted from the fallen and sent en masse to London. The name Waterloo teeth was also adopted for these teeth.
Real human teeth could look deceptively natural on the wearer if they were well attached to the gums and partially covered by the lips. Even if no disinfectants were available, there are indications that these teeth were boiled out before further processing.
The flourishing trade in teeth from battlefields is also described by the Würzburg dentist Karl Joseph Ringelmann (1776–1854) in his work “The organism of the mouth, especially the teeth” from the 1820s. He considers the removal of healthy teeth from living people from lower social classes for the rich to be ethically reprehensible, because this is a barbaric process "whereby the art of healing manifests itself as a desecrated servant of the highest degree of human depravity".
The use of human teeth as dentures decreased in the second half of the 19th century in favor of porcelain teeth. However, they remained a common commercial item, as is shown by listings in product catalogs for dental needs.
The end of the bat is likely to have been due to the changed treatment of prisoners of war and fallen soldiers after the signing of the first Geneva Convention on August 22, 1864. At the international conference, twelve European states took a revolutionary step towards more humanity. In the Hague Land Warfare Regulations of 1907, Chapter I. Wounded and Sick , Article 3 ( duty of the victor ): “After every battle, the party claiming the battlefield should take measures to visit the wounded and, like the fallen, against robbery and to protect bad treatment ”, ( Reichsgesetzblatt , No. 25, August 8, 1907, p. 279 ff.). This officially put an end to the practice of scavenging.
Collections
A collection of bits made from Waterloo teeth is in the Victoria Gallery & Museum in Liverpool . The Apsley House in London in possession of a corresponding set of teeth of the Duke of Wellington .
literature
- Stephanie Pain: The great tooth robbery. New Scientist 2295 (June 16, 2001), ISSN 0262-4079 ( Online ).
- John Woodforde: The strange story of false teeth (original title: The Strange Story of False Teeth , translated by Annemarie Leibbrand-Wettley), pp. 61-64. Heinz Moos, Munich 1969 DNB 458698423 .
- A Catalog of Artificial Teeth and Dental Materials Manufactured and Sold by Claudius Ash & Sons, 7, 8, & 9, Broad Street, Golden Square, London , 1865, Landkirchen: Pelican Publishing, 2000 (facsimile).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Woodforde, p. 61
- ↑ Tooth suppliers. In: The eagle. World and national chronicles; Entertainment newspaper, literary and art newspaper for the Austrian states / Der Adler / Vindobona. Stadt-Wien , November 23, 1843, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ Woodforde, p. 62; Pain
- ^ J. Menzies Cambell: Dentistry then and now. Pickering and Inglis, Glasgow 1963. Quoted in Woodforde, p. 63
- ^ A b Paul O'Keeffe: Waterloo: The Aftermath . Random House, ISBN 978-1-4464-6633-9 , p.57 . Retrieved November 27, 2014.
- ↑ Woodforde, p. 62 f.
- ↑ KJ Ringelmann, The organism of the mouth, especially of the teeth, their diseases and replacements for everyone, especially for parents, educators and teachers , Nuremberg 1824, p. 527.
- ^ KJ Ringelmann, The organism of the mouth, especially the teeth, their diseases and replacements for everyone, especially for parents, educators and teachers , Nuremberg 1824, p. 513.
- ↑ Woodforde, p. 63
- ↑ Hague Land Warfare Regulations ., History Themes. Retrieved January 15, 2017.