FIRST GOLD TEETH

Southland Times, Issue 21073, 3 May 1930, Page 4

FIRST GOLD TEETH

OVER 300 YEARS AGO. A remarkable story, revealing how at least one German goldsmith knew the art of making gold teeth over three hundred years ago, is told by the Munich Medicinal Weekly. In 1593, when a boy of eight, Christopher Muller, the son of a peasant, was observed to have a tooth of gold. Great interest in the discovery was excited in medical circles, and a professor of medicine at Helmstedt University, Dr Horst, investigated the phenomenon. He came to the conclusion that the tooth was a natural (or supernatural) grown tooth of gold and wrote in Latin, which was afterwards translated into German, a thesis on the discovery. It was widely thought that the golden tooth was a sign from God that He was still among the German people. Muller was not satisfied, and took a chance of earning easy money by being exhibited as a curiosity at fairs. Unfortunately for him it was noticed that two white points projected through the supposed natural golden tooth. Further investigations followed,, and it was discovered that the tooth was a normal one which had been filled and plated by a goldsmith. The young man was sent to prison for swindling the public.