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A Platt postscript Two years ago I wrote an article for this publication entitled "Maestro of Murray Place". This described the career and family background of Leon Jablonski Platt, Stirling’s first resident dentist. It included a few details about Leon’s uncle Henry, who had to give up a successful career as a horn player because of the loss of his teeth. This last suggestion was based on a report in the Illustrated London News but most of the information came from "The Early Horn, a Practical Guide" by John Humphries and the sources which he quoted. Recently I received an e-mail from John Humphries, who happened to come across my article on the Internet. Initially he was surprised about how closely my information matched his until he came to the acknowledgement of his own book! He had a few interesting details to add: "I thought your dentist friends might like to know that the report from Henry’s dentists to the Royal Society of Musicians survives and in May 1850 he reported that Platt was ‘quite unable to wear artificial teeth having lost his canine teeth and likewise his back teeth so there is no method of fastening them in his mouth. I have supplied Mr Platt for 9 years.’ "I don’t believe the ILN’s remark about the loss of his teeth being connected with his horn playing: Unless one has very faulty technique one’s teeth shouldn’t suffer and, as the above report shows, he’d actually lost the back ones as well!" Less than twenty years later it appears that his nephew was able to fit patients with full sets of artificial teeth.
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