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https://archive.org/details/ohiojournalofden7188unse
THE
Ohio Journal
OF
DENTAL SCIENCE.
EDITED BY
GEORGE WATT, M. D., D. D. S.
XENIA, OHIO.
VOL. VII.
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY
RANSOM & RANDOLPH.
TOLEDO, OHIO.
*
INDEX TO VOLUME VII.
Contributions and Correspondence — Page. Address to Members of the Graduating- Class of the Ohio College
of Dental Surgery by H. P. Lloyd. 150
Adjunctive Condition of Dentistry and its True Relation to Med- icine by J. Irving Thayer, D.D.S., M.D. 505
Alcohol Molecules by Dr. J. N. Hurty. 518
A Question by L. P. Bethel, D.D.S. 261
A Correction by A- Perry. 586
Amended Dental Law of Indiana — How Construed 436
Biographical Sketch of Prof. James Taylor with his Portrait,
by the Editor. 1 Biographical Sketch of Prof. Chapin A. Harris with his Portrait,
by the Editor. 249 Biographical Sketch of Prof. Thos. L. Buckingham with his
Portrait ". by the Editor. 449
Case in Practice by E. H. Ra:[t'ensperger, D.D.S. 309
Cases in Practice (illustrated),
by Geo. W. Keely, D.D.S. 49-97-201-305-453
Casts and Dies— Swaging Plates. . . .* by L. P. Haskell, D.D.S. 205
Change of Front by Dr. Norman W. Kingsley. 110
Chemistry as Applied in Dentistry by L. P. Bethel, D.D.S. 9- 99
Dental Decay— Theories of by Geo. Watt, D.D.S., M.D. 61
Dentistry a Specialty in Medicine by Dr. J. S. Converse. 81
Economy by E. H. Raffensperger, D.D.S. 456
Engine Burnisher and Band Matrix in Filling with Amalgam,
by Dr. H. G. Hmted. 107 Founding of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery,
by A. Perry, D.D.S. 207
Gas in Combination 435
Hamamelis Virginica by D. A. Colton, M.D. 37
Harelip and Cleft Palate— Treatment of a Case,
by C. H. Harroun, M.D., D.D.S. 145
How to Educate the People by Dr. C. W. Munson. 405
Impressions by L. P. Haskell, D.D.S. 59
Laboratory Inquiries Answered by L. P. Haskell, D.D.S. 36-108-308
Laboratory Hints . 112
J
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII.
t
Contributions \ m> ( Jorrespondence — ( 'ontintu d. Page
Merchant Kelly— a Sketch 52-233
Methods and Means by J. Edmund Kelh, Jr., D.D.S. 255
Notes on Orthodontia with a New System of Regulating and
Retention (illustrated) b y E . H. Angle, D.D.S. 457
Notes from Europe by N. W. Williams, I). Iks. 553
Obtunding Sensitive Dentine by C. W. Leaks, D.D.S. 379
Operating in a South Light by James W. Cormany. 38
Periostitis and Necrosis of the Superior Maxilla,
by Dr. J. Fremont BurkeU. 262
Plaster vs. Modeling Compound .--by C. C. Everts, M.D. 277
Potash Alum 280
Process of Absorption in Dental Tissues,
by W. H. Whitdar, D.D.S., M.J). 401
Proposed Ohio Dental Law 79
Report of a Case with Items of Interest by Dr. G. A. Mill*. 353
Repairing Rubber Plates by C. M. Colby. 234
Replacing Teeth on Celluloid Plates. . ..by J. H. Wanier, D.D.S. 483
Sketch of Merchant Kelly by the Editor. 52
Sounds from Chicago 284-270
Tarnished Gold Fillings 379
The Ohio State Dental Society — Suggestions Wise and Other- wise ' by William Herbert. 585
Those Tooth Crown Patents 587
Transplantation and Replantation of Teeth, .by A. Berry, D.D.S. 515
Transplanting Teeth — to Avoid Syphilis in 80
"Vacuum Plates" by IT. E. Swigert, D.D.S. 350
Society Papers —
A Ten Minutes Sermon on Nutrition., .by C. M. Wright, D.D.S. 160
Amalgams by Prof. J. B. Hodgkin. 577
Antisepsis by M. H. Chappell. 42 J
Art in Dentistry by Dr. Jenison. 581
Artificial Substitutes tor Nafural Teeth. . . .hy Dr. Henry Barnes. 305
Aseptic Sponge by Dr. Parramore. 537
Buccal and Labial Cavities — Treatment of
/;.// ./. E. Robinson, D.D.S. 322
Causes of Failures of Fillings by Dr. Staples. 530
Chalk Talk on the Preparation of Cavities, .by S. T. Kirk, D.D.S. 409
Chronic Pyaemia from Dental Origin by R. J. Porre, D.D.S. 475
Conservatism in the Selection of Filling Materials,
by Dr. Marshall. 480
Correction of Irregularities of the Teeth by Dr. Talbot. 30
Culture of Microbes by G. V. Black, M.D., D.D.S. 265
Dental Hemorrhage and its Treatment. . .by Otto Arnold, D.D.S. 34
Dental Art and Invention by Dr Swasy. 310
Dental Science and Literature by Dr. Koch. 313
Dental Literature and Nomenclature — Report on,
by Louis Ottofy, D.D.S. 405
Diagnosis of Oral Tumors by T. W. Brophy, D.D.S. 427
Extract Teeth— Should Physicians ? by Dr. Corbin. 228
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIL
v
Contributions and Correspondence — Continued. Page Fractures of Maxillae with Modified Interdental Splint,
by Wm. Carr, D. D.S. 476 Historical Sketch of the Mississippi Valley Association,
by E. G. Betty, D.D.S. 158
Histology and Microscopy Report by H. A. Smith, D.D.S. 576
Immediate Root Filling by A. E. Baldwin, M.D., D.D.S. 479
Impressions by W. H. Dor ranee, D.D.S. 209
Items of Interest by C. R. Butler, D.D.S., M.D. 27
Lining Plates with Gold or Felt Foil by W. H. Stephenson. 415
Management of Pulpless Teeth by Dr. ./. E. Cravens. 358-532
Materia Medica and Therapeutics,
Report by A. II". Harlan, D.D.S. 572
Matrices as Adjuncts in Filling Teeth by Dr. T. E. Week*. 534
Medicinal Stimulants by L. C. Ingersoll, M.D.. D.D.S. 316
Microscope in Progressive Dentistry — its use,
by A,. Davis, D.D.S. 432
My Method of Bridge- Work by H. W. Runyeon, D.D.S. 33
Near Approach to, and Devitalization ot' the Dental Pulp,
by J. E. Robinson, D.D.S. 566
New Remedies by A. W. Harlan, D.D.S., M.D. 187
Nitrous Oxide by A. M. Long, D.D.S. 220
Operative Dentistry by J. A. Robinson, D.D.S. 18
" . " by Edmund Noyes, D.D.S. 320
-Report on by E. T. Darby, D.D.S. 526
" " —as Applied to the Deciduous Teeth,
by W. X. Morrison, D.D.S. 376
Osteomylitis by Dr. Metnitz. 535
Pain in the Temporo-Maxillary Joint caused by Irregularity of
the Teeth by C. L. Goddard, A.M., D.D.S. 584
Permanent First Molars by A. J. Smith, D.D.S. 417
Permanent First Molars by J. A. Watling, D.D.S. 230
Photo-Micrographs of all the Structures of the Tooth,
by Dr. J. Howard, Mummery. 583
Practical Therapeutics by A. W. Harlan, D.D.S., M.D. 318
Practical Miscellany by Dr. A. L. Overholser. 414
Preliminary Education by J. N. Crouse, D.D.S. 466
Protective Dentine ; illustrated by Stereopticon. by Dr. Fletcher. 583
Reflex-(ions) by C. M. Wright, D.D.S. 559
Regulating Appliances by Dr. X. J. Roberts. 267
Relative Duties of Patient and Operator . by J. W. Lyder, D.D.S. 272 Report of Committee on the state of the Indiana Society,
by W. B. Knapp, D.D.S. 406
Salivary Analysis by Dr. V. C. Vaughan. 217
Soft Gold Foils by Dr. Geo. H. Winckler. 538
Special Case (illustrated) by Dr. J. H. Morrison. 31
Teeth of Rabbits by Frank Abbott, M.D., D.D.S. 530
The Relation of Dentistry and Medicine. . by W. A. Dunn, M.D. 183
The Extraction of Teeth by A. Berry, D.D.S. 556
vi
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII.
( Iontributions and Correspondence — Continued. Page The Origin of the Dental Fibril, illustrated by Aid of Stereopti-
con by Dr. B. R. Andrew*. 581
Tin and Gold as a Filling by E. G. Betty, D.D.S. 569
Tooth Crowns and Porcelain Enamel Facings,
by C. H. Land, D.D.S. 215
Use of Hot Air in Dental Therapeutics. . . by E. Brasseur, D.D.S. 478
Society Transactions —
American Dental Association 464-526-572
Indiana State Dental Society 358-406
International Medical Congress 474-532-58 1
Illinois State Dental Society 263-310-378-427
Michigan State Dental Society 209
Mississippi Valley Dental Society 158
Northern Ohio Dental Society 272-322-365
Ohio State Dental Society 15-556
Southern Dental Society 478-536-577
Compilations —
A Glossary on Microbes by Dr. 11". Hamlet. 77
A Specialist on Specialism by Dr. E. Wigglesworth. 280
Chloroform Water by Br. Beurmann. 78
Dental Education by J, S. Rounce. 330
Grafting of Human Bone 542
Harelip Operation by Dr. Lemke. 543
Headaches in Diagnosis by C. Benson, M.D. 76
Iodine in the Treatment of Glandular Swellings. by Dr. J. Little. 131
Medicine and Money 483
Nasal Polypi — Method of Removing 543
New Remedies by Dr. II. Schweig. 74
Pain by J. T. Whittaker, M.D. 70
Phosphates in Therapeutics 127
Primary Anesthetic Stage of Ether by Dr. J. H. Packard. 381
Principles and Progress of Modern Therapeutics,
by Dr. W. H. Draper. 113
Relation of Dentition to Aural Troubles by Dr. S. Sexton. 380
Remarks on Pathology of Shock by Dr. McGwire. 122
Removal of Right Half of Lower Jaw by Slow Enucleation 485
Science Teaching by Sir James Paget. 281
Sharpening Hypodermic Needles 129
Simple Substitute for Harelip Pins by Dr. C. F. Mason. 130
The Inutility of Lime Phosphates 128
The Question of Advertising a Specialty 79
Treatment of Excessive Salivation during Pregnancy 128
Zonular Cataract and Dental Malformations 130
Editor's Specials —
Aaron Washington 88
A Call from his Quietude 389
A Field for Fun 439
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII vii
Editor's Specials — Continued. Page
A Lesson in Rhetoric 486
A Miscellany 590
As Others See Us 40
Conglomerate Teaching -544
Death's Doings 440
Delayed 39
Doctor L. P. Haskell 440
Does the Study of Specialties Tend to Egotism ? 381
Editorial Fairness — What about it? 437
English as Written 491
Germs and Disease 545
Implantation of Teeth 493
Is Dentistry a Specialty in Medicine ? 282
" " " — A New Departure 337
Journalistic Responsibility 87
Mississippi Valley Dental Association 39
Not Seasoned with Sage 494
Obituary of Dr. Edmund Osmund 41
" " Joel P. Ulrey 42
Our Portraits 87
Pointed Expressions 488
Report of the Michigan State Dental Society 331
Selecting Students 285
Thanks 286
The Ideal Filling 84
The Killed Dog 589
The Very Thing to do 337
Thoughtless if not more so 387
Too Early Extraction of Temporary Molars 87
True History or None 336
Walker, J. R., D.D.S 441
What We She \mj Hear— Edited by L. P. Bethel, D.D.S.
A Good Sterilizer 592
Acid — Formic — its use. . . 495
Acids of the Stomach in Health and Disease 595
Action of Strong Cocaine Solutions 134
Alkaloidal Characteristics 548
Alloys — Resembling Gold 548
Alveolar Abscess — Treatment 134
Amalgam Carrier 91
Amalgam — Mixing of 133
Amalgam Finisher 286
Anaesthetic— Local 238-288-549
—Chinese 339
Anaesthesia — an Aid in 390
Anaesthetics and Stimulants 192
Antiseptic 496
viii CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII.
What We See and Hear — Continued. Page
Antiseptics — Caution in use of 496
Antiseptic Sponge 550
Antral Catarrh— Treatment of 499
Artificial Resi>iration — an Aid to 289
Arthritis — Symptomatic Alveolar 337
Artificial Teeth — Swallowing 290
Artificial Respiration — Method of 499
Artificial Crown — how to make , 500
Artificial Ramus and Condyle 593
Atmosphere Purifier 592
Bacteria — a Cause of Suppuration 132
Bacterial Resistance 443
Bacterium Phosphorescens 444
Bands — for Bridge- work 390
Benzine — to Deodorize 390
Benzoin for Ulcers 495
Bilious Temperament 500
Bleaching Teeth — Process of 238
Blistering— a Method of 237
Broaches — how to make 133
—Method of Tempering 289
" — to Remove those Broken 496
Burns— Treatment of 442-548
Calendula — uses' of 239
Calcium Sulphide — care in using 495
Calculi — Salivary 550
Cancerous Tumors — to Arrest Growth of 499
Capping — Material for 337
Carbolic Acid — Analgetic Action of 392
" " — to Liquify 497
" " and Creosote — difference 443
Caries of Teeth — Cause of Epilepsy 443
Catarrh of Antrum— Treatment ' 496
Caustics — use in Surgery 550
Cavities — how to cut in Artificial Teeth 192
" difficult of Access — how to fill 193
" —Lining of 391
Cement — tests for 193
" —for Celluloid 338
" —insoluble 496
" —how to mix 498
" Mixtures — Best Temperature* for 496
Chloroform— Submucous Injections of 497
Chloroform as a Haemostatic: 593
Cleft Palate Operations 443
Clinics 503
Cocaine — Action of 134
—Test for 238
CONTENTS OF VOL UME VII. ix
What We See and Hear — Continued. Page
Cocaine— an Antagonist to Strychnine 90
" — how to Preserve 91
" Poisoning — Antidote 191
" — Dangerous 287
" — Paralysis from Injections of 288
" — use of in Burns 495
" — in Inflamed Tissues 5,49
Composition for Duplicating Models 498
Controlling Hemorrhage 595
Collodion — Antiseptic 338
Crown — how to make 500
Crowning — Method of 194
Crown and Bridge Work — Bands for 389
Dam — to Repair Broken 390
Damages — will collect 286
Dark Joints — the cause 134
Death from Injections of Peroxide of Hydrogen 91
Death after Extraction of Teeth 594
Dentists in England 132
Dentistry — Early History of 290
" — not a Specialty in Medicine 134
Dentifrice of Sulphur not Effectual 287
Dentition — Late . . 499
Deposit in Zinc Phosphate — cause of 191
Dies — for Crown Work 287
Disk Cutter — how to make 288
Disinfecting Compound 289
Dressing for Root Canals 495
Drugs — Impurities of 288
Early Dentistry 290
Enamel — Sensitiveness of • 549
Epilepsy — from Carious Teeth 443
Ether — Precautions in Administering 497
Eugenol as a Dressing 134
Excavating — to Lessen Pain of 192
Exposed Pulp — Capping 191
Extraction of Third Molar 237
— Persistent Sneezing after 499
Filling Pulpless Teeth 392
Fillings — Method of Dressing 191
—How to Start • 192
" — Loose Gold — Treatment of 238
" —to Secure Good 389
Fitting Plates to Flabby Mouths 594
Flux — for Bridge-work , 339
Formic Acid — as a Disinfectant 495
Fractured Plates— to Reunite 496
Gold— to Facilitate Melting of 496
X
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII.
What We See and Hear — Continued. Page
Gold — Alloy Resembling 54S
Gums — Treatment of Sore 498
Haemostatic Cotton 91
Holder for Rubber Dam 338
How to Mix Amalgams 133
Hypodermic Injection 548
Hypodermic Irritation — to Allay 286
Ice — Impure - 390
Inflamed and Sore Gums — to Harden 191
Injections of Chloroform — Dangers from 497
Insoluble Cement 496
Iodine Irritation 549
" — Local Revulsive Action of 495
" — to Remove Stains of 495
Iodoform and Silver 391
" — to Deodorize 549
—Vapor of 239
Irregularities 194
Iron — to Free from Rust 548
Late Dentition 499
Leaking Dam — to Repair 390
■ Ligatures — for Regulating 442
Local Anaesthetic 237-288-549-592
Lymphatic Temperament 500
Making Repairs 390
Malaria and Tobacco 390
Medicaments — Carrier of 192
Mercurial Teeth 393
Metals— How to Platinize 498
Method of Lining Vulcanite Plates 133
Micro-organisms 443
Micro-Organisms of the Mouth 593
Models — Composition for Duplicating 498
Molars — to Preserve 288
Moldine— Melotte's 338
Mouthwash 496
" —Antiseptic 443
Nausea after Ether — How to Control 134
Necrosis— Phosphor 443
Nerve— to Unite 288
Nervous Temperament 500
Neuralgia— Cure for 389-548
Notching of the Incisor Teeth not of Syphilitic Origin 595
Obtaining a Third Hand 132
Obtundents 135
Organism — a New 338
Oxygen— Solid 391
Paper— Salicylated 390
CONTEXTS OF VOLUME VII xi
What We See and Hear — Continual. Page
Paste— for Devitalizing Pulps 287
Phthisical Teeth 392
Phosphor — Necrosis 44.".
Pickling Solution.. 338
Plaster — to Avoid Expansion and Warpage of 192
" — to Separate in Flasks 237
" —to Harden 288
Plates— to Mend 444
" — to Reproduce Fractured 496
Platinum — Melting — Radiations from 548
Pliability— to Restore in Rubber 389
Polishing— Method of 337
Progress 286
Ptyalism— How Averted 287
Pumice — Carrier for 287
Pulps— Preparation for Destroying 240
Pulpless Teeth— Filling of 392
Pyorrhoea — Cleansing Teeth and Gums in cases'of 191
Pyemia — following Extraction 497
Read Journals 594
Regulating — Bands for 288
" —Materials for 338
Remarkable Dentition 593
Remedy for Sty 592
Replanted Teeth — Retention of 193
Resorption of Roots — one cause 192
Respiration— an Aid to Artificial 289
" —Method of Artificial 499
• Rest — Give us the 443
Rickety Teeth 392
Root Canals— How to Open 194
« « —Drier for 287
« » —Dressing 495
Rough Plates the Cause of Sore Mouths 91
Rubber — Deterioration of 338
" —to Restore Pliability 389
u — to Prevent Crawling of 390
" —How to Preserve 191
Rubber Dam— Holder for 338
Rubber Plate— Repairs of 390
Rust Stains — to Remove 288
Salycilated Paper 390
Salivary Calculi 550
Sanguine Temperament 500
Separation of Teeth 192
Shellac Varnish— to Make Clear 288
Silver and Iodoform 391
" — Melting — Radiations from 548
xii CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII
What We See and Hear — Continued. Page
Soldei;— for Aluminum 338
Sponges — to Make Antiseptic 550
Spores of the Saliva 91
Stains— to Remove from Teeth 390
" —of Iodine — How Removed 495
Steel -to Brighten 237
" — to Free from Rust 548
Stenocarpine a Fraud 592
Stitching Wounds 132
Stomatitic Teeth 393
Stopping— a Temporary 192
Strumous Teeth 392
Sulphide of Calcium — care in using 495
Sub-iodide of Bismuth 496
Swaging— Machine for 239
Syphilitic Teeth— Appearance of 393
Syringe— New Design 238
Tannin— Test for Water 548
Teeth— Separation of 192
" — Retention of Replanted 193
" — Swallowing Artificial 290
" —Cheap ones must go 289
" —Types of in Disease 392
Tempering— Method of 288
Temperaments 500
The Best Broaches 133
Thymol 495
Third Molar— Extraction of 237
Tincture of Iodine— to Decolorize '191
To Protect Tissues from Arsenical Paste 91
" Prevent Chlora-percha Adhering to Instruments 91
" Reduce Dislocation of the Jaw 132
" Avoid Dark Lines in Gum Sections 132
" Make Loose Plates Fit 133
" Make Artificial Teeth Correspond to Natural 132
" Obtund Sensitive Dentine 592
Tobacco Breath— to Destroy Odor of 495
Tooth Pulp— to Test Vitality of 391
" —in Left Orbit 444
Treatment for Hardening Enamel 134
Undercuts— cares for 289
Ulcers— cure for 495
Vehicle for Menthol 592
Vulcanized Rubber— Loss of Elasticity 338
—Alteration of 496
Welding , 237
What Next 339
Wounds— Drainage of 193
Yawning— after Extraction of Teeth 499
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII. xiii
Societies — Page
Alabama Dental Association 137
American Dental Association 291-342-445
An International Dental Congress 44
Analysis of State Dental Laws 502
Central Tennessee College of Dentistry 29S
" Dental Association of Northern New Jersey 297
Chicago Dental Society 295
" College of Dentistry 295
Conditions of Membership in the Ninth International Medical
Congress 397
Erratum 398
First District Dental Society of New York 551
Illinois State Dental Society 196-344
Indiana Dental College 200
" State Dental Association 294-394
International Medical Congress— Explanatory Statement 395
Dental " 138
Medical " 139
Iowa State Dental Society 195
Is Dentistry a Specialty in Medicine ? 340
Kentucky State Dental Association 241
Louisiana " " " 47
Meetings 43-92-136-195-240-290-340-393-444-501
Mad River Dental Society 243
Michigan State Dental Society 243
Minneapolis Dental Society 445
Minnesota State Dental Society 502
Mississippi Valley Association 93-136-197
Missouri State Dental Society 243-294
" Dental College Alumni Association 298
National Association of Dental Examiners 340
" " Faculties 445
" Board of Examiners 446
Nebraska State Dental Society 241
Law 300
New Dental Society 47
New York College of Dentistry 296
North Carolina State Dental Association 343
Northern Ohio Dental Society 241-342-502
Ohio College of Dental Surgery 199-293
" " " "vs. Rosenthal 344
" State Dental Society 501-596
St. Louis Dental Society 93
Southern Illinois Dental Society 137
" Dental Association 394-501
South Carolina Dental Association 395
The Dental Law of Indiana as Amended in 1 887 299
University of Iowa. 296
xiv CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII.
Societies — Continued. Page
University of Maryland 297
Western District Dental Society of Illinois 394
Wisconsin State Dental Society 294
Books and Pamphlets —
American System of Dentistry 245-598
Caulk's Dental Annual 93
Dentistry not a Specialty in Medicine 247
Lindsay & Blakiston's Physician's Visiting List for 1888 599
Managements Pulpless Teeth 247
Microscopic Structure of the Human Tooth 246
Nineteenth Century Sense 398
Nitrous Oxide 599
Proceedings of the Arkansas State Dental Association 247
Relation of the State to the Medical Profession 94
Room for More 95
The Archives of Dentistry 94
" Dental Register , 94
Office and Laboratory 94
" " Review 95
Transactions of the American Dental Association 93
" " Illinois State " " 599
" " " Indiana " " ..< 599
" " " Pennsylvania State Dental Association 247
Aftermath —
A Bacteriological .Journal 96
A Dispelled Delusion 303
A Dental Weekly 350
A Dakota Doctor 448
A Good Appointment 399
A Glorious Country 504
A Learned Man 144
A Market Report 399
A New Wrinkle 400
A New Haemostatic 78
A Scotch Gillie 504
A Solvent for Sordes in Ataxic Fevers 304
A Specimen of French Dentistry 351
A Question of Pronunciation 400
A Woful History 504
Advice 95
American Dentists in Germany 302
An Official Decision 351
An Inference 551
As Others See Us 552
Bacteria and the Price of Ice 448
Certain of Nothing 303
Chicago Medical and Dental Schools and Journals 96
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII. xv
Aftermath — Continued. Page
Clinics 399
Common Sense in Dental Practice 144
Commencement Orators 302
Continuous Gum Furnaces 69
Death from Chloroform 302
Defects of the Osseous System and Diet 48
Dentists and Pharmacists . . 448
Dignity in Title 48
Disguising the Odor of Iodoform 96
Discovery of Gold 248
Doctor J. Rollo Knapp 303
Early Dentition 302
Education— a College 304
Effects of Study on the Teeth 303
Electricity and Welding 95
English as she is Taught 350
Expansive Alloy 95
Experiments by Dr. Dunn 248
Health 144
Herr Strauss 96
Honors Conferred 400
Josh Billings on Doctors 448
Keep Informed 351
Keep Records of Cases 448
Liniment for Neuralgia 95
Married 551
Medical Logic 448
" Slang 552
Nitrate of Silver Stains 95
No Women Need Apply 448
Ohio Dental College 248
Ornamental Teeth 504
Physicians may Pwaktice Dentistwy, You Naw ! 600
Proposed New Dental Law for Ohio 248
Proprietary Medicine 96
Prospectus— Dental Review 96
Sad but True 351
Sadly Afflicted 552
The American Dentist in England 248
" Electro Magnetic Mallet 200
" Influence of Drugs upon Digestion . . % 352
" Father of his Couutry 302
" " Medson ". Man in Ohio 352
" Specialist 304
" Teeth from a Medico-Legal Aspect 400
" " of Apache Indians 302
" Third Scourge of Humanity 200
" Wonders of Spiritualism 504
xvi CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII.
Aftermath — Continued. Page
The Result 600
They must go : 200
Think for Yourself 350
This is not an Old Saw 90
To Create 200
Too Scientific 350
Uncle Esek's Wisdom 301
Unique Western Manners 504
Wedding Bells 399
What are the Duties of a Dentist 144
Woman in Dentist's Chair <i00
Women 200
" as Dentists 400
Worth Remembering 48
□ hiD Journal of Dental Science, Toledo, □
THE
OHIO JOURNAL
DENTAL SCIENCE.
Vol. VII. JANUARY 1, 1887. No. 1.
Cor\tf ib utioi\$.
"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold."— Solomon.
PROF. JAMES TAYLOR, M. D., D. D. S.
Like many, if not a majority of those who figure as leaders in our large cities, the subject of this sketch was born and reared in a rural district. It has been said that the large cities are ulcers on the body politic, and are kept from utter and fatal malignancy only by the influx of recruits from the country. Whether viewed from a political, moral or social standpoint, this quaint description of cities is not far from the truth. At any rate, had Dr. Taylor not given to Cincinnati his personal and professional presence and influence, Dental Surgery would have lost a forward impulse there, and would have lagged behind in the race for professional progress, instead of stepping promptly and boldly to the front, and establishing the second dental col- lege the world ever saw, and the first, indeed, owned and con- trolled by an association of dentists. This association was an incorporated body, and its property was inalienably and forever devoted and dedicated to the cause of education in Dental Sur- gery and it collateral sciences.
To show the clearness of thought and fidelity to principle
THE OHIO JOURNAL
pertaining to Dr. Taylor, nothing can be found better than a pro- vision embodied in the constitution of this association by Dr. Taylor, who was the author, not only of this measure, but of the constitution as well. Some of those subscribing stock to build and equip the college seemed to fear that some cunning, selfish man, in the profession or out of it, might buy a majority of the stock, and thus control the educational measures of the college, and possibly divert it into dishonorable and unprofessional chan- nels.
The measure referred to seems a little complex, but is very simple when understood. The educational interests of the col- lege were put under the care and control of this, known as " The Ohio Dental College Association," and each member had one vote. These individual votes were not cast as the votes of stock- holders ; for the man with but one share, or no share at all, if only a member, had the same power as the one owning a dozen shares. The charter provided that in the simple control of the property, as such, only stockholders had a right to vote, and they were entitled to a vote for each share of stock.
But, to become a member of the College Association, a man had to be elected to membership by a majority vote of the mem- bers acting, the incorporators being the original members. Then it was provided that an alumnus, by paying annually the interest on a share of stock was eligible to membership, and if so elected he had an equal vote as to the control of the educational matters of the college. Thus it was made easy to prevent the perversion of the institution by designing men buying up the stock, for such speculators would not be elected to membership in the associa- tion, and consequently have no voice in selecting a faculty, or in prescribing a curriculum of study.
The stockholders had power over the property, to buy, sell, build, etc. ; while as stockholders simply they had no other power. If elected to membership in the association, as they were eligible, they had power over the educational interests, having each a single vote, regardless of the stock they owned.
This measure has been greatly admired by many, and I have always regarded it as the master stroke of Dr. Taylor. More than once were plots originated to get control of the college for selfish purposes, but this wise and judicious arrangement was, each time, found to be an insuperable barrier.
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
It is referred to above as the master stroke of Dr. T., and evidence is not lacking that he even surpassed himself in devising and executing it. Members of the association may recall a time when Dr. T., was himself surprised at its efficiency, and at its security as a prudential measure. He had forgotten its strongest points.
This is introduced early in this sketch because it is regarded as the best key to the man's character we have.
In the spring of 1850 I made the acquaintance of Wm. Jones, M. D., of Kenton, Hardin County, Ohio, who had been a fellow student with Doctor Taylor, under a private preceptor, and he told me much about their student lives. The location was at, or in the vicinity of Bainbridge, Ohio, where Dr. Taylor was born. This was a small village in a densely populated community. In such society each individual knows what the rest do, and what they say ; and the neighborhood now under consideration formed no exception to the rule. Hence, when Bill Jones and Jim Taylor began to study medicine the whole community was aroused and amused. Each was called doctor just for fun ; but the title had become familiar and firmly fixed long before they regarded themselves as worthy, to wear it.
Jones began the study something earlier than Taylor; and was somewhat familiar with technical terms when Taylor came to the office. His description of Dr. T.'s efforts to master the big, hard words was amusing. He said that not before or since had he met one who seemed to encounter such difficulty. But, said he, Taylor belonged to a church that believes in the perseverance of the saints, and he regarded himself as a saint, and therefore he persevered, till now, said he, on a late visit to Cincinnati, I find him at the head of the dental profession, and president of the only dental college in the West. And, said he, I am not at all surprised, for when life and health are granted, such industry and perseverance as he possessed will always win.
When boys undertake to study a profession among their play- mates and associates, they are apt to be jeered and ridiculed. Our friend was no exception to this rule, and Dr. Jones told two anecdotes illustrating this, while one of them demonstrates Dr. T.'s difficulty with professional terms.
At a corn husking a young man cut his hand. Dr. T. was in the house, on a friendly visit. Some one said, I'll run into the
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house and hear what the young doctor says you ought to do for your hand. After learning the nature of the wound, he said it would be well to bring the margins together by adhesive plaster, but he feared there was none at hand. Not hearing the first syl- lable at all, and the second but indistinctly, and not caring for the reputation of the new doctor, he ran back and reported that the wound must be covered with heathen plaster, and henceforth heathen plaster was regarded as his first prescription in his native neighborhood.
He had trouble with the term oesophagus, and instead of get- ting the accent placed on the second syllable, he accented both the first and third syllables. This secured him the nickname, Easy Phagus, and " Easy Jim " soon followed. But he was not " easy Jim," nor easy at all, till he mastered whatever he had undertaken.
Doctor Jones spoke in something of a jocular manner in stating that our hero belonged to a church that believes in the perseverance of the saints. Dr. T. was a member of the Presby- terian Church, and earty in his christian course was elected to the responsible position of ruling elder, and probably no layman in southern Ohio had his name among the members of church courts — presbyteries, synods, and assemblies — oftener than he. His activity, urbanity, and steadfastness to principle caused this. He was selected as a delegate much more frequently than he would have been in turn by routine selection.
In his presence it was easy to recognize that he was a christian gentleman, yet he was always free from cant, and did not regard a " long face," or a sour countenance as essential to Christianity. Few men were more cheerful. He went smiling along the journey of life, and the world was all the brighter for his going through it. As a result of his cheerful contentment, none could say,
" His face was furrowed o'er with years, And hoary was his hair ; "
For up to the close of life he was as exempt from the tracks and footprints of " wrinkled care " as were average men of thirty ; and only a few hairs had been frosted by the icy touch of the frozen fingers of Father Time.
Already allusion has been made to the friendship between Dr. T. and his fellow pupil, Dr. Jones. This always reminded me
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
5
of chemical affinity — an attachment of unlikes ; for, except that both were professional men, and both christians, no two could be more unlike than these two. On my first acquaintance with Dr. T. he asked me if I kne\vr Dr. J. Replying affirmatively, he said I always thought he seemed aa if he had swallowed all the dic- tionaries ; for the more crooked the word the better he liked it. Dr. T. was portly, with a ruddy complexion. Dr. J. was small, very slim and nervous, without any complexion. Dr. J. was excitable — even fussy, while Dr. T. was calm and dignified. Dr. Jones was a Methodist, and a local preacher. While Dr. T. held to perseverance in all good things, Dr. J. told me he often felt like falling ; but I never knew him to do so. Perhaps he was like the " Fighting Parson," so called from his being Colonel of a regiment characterized by its fighting qualities. The Parson sharply denounced the " drink traffic " in one of his sermons. A saloon keeper present with his family, next day, got a horse- whip, and sent for the parson to come to his store. Hoping to find a case of conviction, he promptly went. As soon as he was inside, the proprietor locked the door, and, producing the whip, said, " You abused me to your heart's content yesterday, now' I propose to get satisfaction by wearing this out, in flogging you." " But, see here," said the Parson, u it is supposed that our church believes that christians may fall from grace. I feel a little shaky and light-headed now. Better let me out into the fresh air, or I might fall." And estimating the size, and looking at the clench- ed fist of the Parson, he quietly, yet promptly opened the door. Dr. Jones was, perhaps, a little shaky, while Dr. T. was steady and steadfast. They remained fast friends till death. Some of the early readers of the Dental Register will remember that Dr. Jones reported a case in which a lower maxilla had been lost by necrosis, and a new bone had been produced. I think this was probably the first case of the kind reported in our American dental periodicals. Dr. Taylor died in the harness, while Dr. Jones was helpless for years before his death.
Dr. Taylor studied medicine under a private teacher at Bain- bridge or its vicinity. Dr. Jones told me, and I think Dr. T. did likewise, that Dr. John Harris, a brother of the afterward famous and revered Chapix A. Harris, was their preceptor. And this quiet country locality might well be called the birth place of American dentistry. For as far as dentistry had yet been recognized and
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practiced, it was similar in aims and results the world over, to the extent of civilization. But Chapin Harris was practicing medicine at Greenfield, but ten or twelve miles distant. Both the Harris brothers and Dr. Taylor concluded to practice dentistry in connection with medicine. A free exchange of opinion showed that Drs. Chapin Harris and James Taylor held identical opin- ions as to the necessity of a thorough professional education for the dentist, and neither rested till he had, with such assistance as he could rally around him, established a college to afford the desired instruction, of which they both so strongly felt the need.
It was probably his acquaintance with Chapin Harris that turned the current of Dr. Taylor's thoughts and efforts into the channel of dentistry. At any rate he very early turned his med- ical attainments in this direction.
As was common in those days, Dr. Taylor travelled from village to village in the practice of dentistry. In a recent number of the Journal is found an account of his first visit to Xenia, Ohio, starting from Wilmington with' a money capital of six and a fourth cents.
For a time Dr. Taylor practiced, both medicine and dentistry in partnership with his preceptor Dr. John Harris, the specialty gaining on the general practice, and in their special practice they itinerated to a considerable extent among the neighboring villa- ges. But after a year or two Dr. Taylor settled in Hillsborough, Ohio, while Dr. Harris settled at Chillicothe.
In 1830 Dr. Taylor went to Transylvania University, in Lex- ington, Ky., and in time received the degree of M.D. Returning to Ohio he was licensed to practice medicine by the board of cen- sors, and opened his first medical office in Bainbridge.
For a few years Dr. T. spent the winter in the south and the summer in the north. In 1834 he decided to wholly abandon the practice of medicine, yet he never regarded the time spent in medical study as lost. His medical knowledge was ever consid- ered by him as his best stock in trade. He continued to spend the winters in the south till 1838.
About this time he invested his ready money in dry goods, and started a store in Bainbridge, with a younger brother in charge. But he was not made for a dry goods man ; for he soon sold out, and repeated the experiment in Crawfordsville, Indiana, but still with unsatisfactory success, and again he went south.
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
In the meantime his brother Joseph had studied dentistry, and located in Maysville, Ky., and one of the younger brothers went to study with him, and at least four Taylor brothers were dentists.
In 1842 Dr. Taylor, detern^ned to locate permanently, pur- chased the office, fixtures, good-will, etc. of Dr. Postaing, in the city of Cincinnati, which had then a population of some 60,000. His brother Edward was then practicing in Louisville, Ky., but was offered and accepted a partnership with l5r. T., and the two brothers soon gained a pleasant and lucrative practice. Some time after Dr. Edward's health failed, and a brother, Dr. Joseph Taylor took his place.
While practicing in Cincinnati Dr. Taylor was offered a pro- fessorship in the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, but de- clined. In 1844 he consulted with Drs. Melancthon Rogers and Jesse W. Cook, and together they applied for a college charter, and in 1845, the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, the second in the world, was organized. Dr. Taylor's chair was Practical Den- tistry and Pharmacy. After fifteen or twenty years labor as a professor, he rested on the title of Emeritus Professor, but again resumed active lecturing, and was on full, active duty at the time he was called home.
Dr. Taylor was wide awake to the advantages of associated effort, and hence became, from the beginning of its existence, an active member of the first dental society ever formed, the Amer- ican Dental Association. Mainly by his influence it came west for a single meeting, which was to have been held in Cincinnati, in August, 1854. But the meeting was postponed till May, 1855 ; and this postponement has an amusing, yet rather humiliating history. Prof. Elisha Townsend, of Philadelphia, was president. Some time preceding the date appointed for the meeting, he issued a circular stating that the Ohio river was so low at Pitts- burgh, that steamboats could not go to Cincinnati, and as a large majority of the members resided east, it was unreasonable to ask them to travel by stage coach all the distance between these cities. Hence, as President, he took the responsibility of chang- ing the time of meeting till the following May, as the river was always in good stage during the spring season.
This meeting was a small one, and members and visitors present concluded that the society had lived out its days of use-
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fulness, and they arranged to hold an American Dental Conven- tion in the following August, in Philadelphia. The old society adjourned to meet in ISTew York August, 1856, and the Conven- tion adjourned to the same time and place ; and the good old society adjourned sine die, Dr. ^aylor present and helping it to draw its last breath, being faithful even unto death.
Dr. Taylor was elected president of the convention and pre- sided at its Boston meeting in 1857 — not 1856 as some have stated.
The second d?ntal society, and the oldest now in existence, is known as the Mississippi Yalley Association of Dental Surgeons, and Dr. Taylor was one of its organizers, and was a member at the time of his death, having been all the time an active, influen- tial and leading member.
The Mississippi Yalley Association, in 1847, established the Dental Register, and elected an editorial committee of three, Dr. Taylor being one, and the only one residing at the place of pub- lication, therefore, most of the editorial labor devolved on him. At a meeting of theM. Y. Association, in 1853, it being generally considered that the Register was self-supporting, Dr. Taylor was requested to accept it, to which request he acceded, and thus he became at once proprietor, publisher and editor. More than once, at special request from the profession, he greatly enlarged the periodical, making it vastly more valuable to th*e profession.
Dr. Taylor was connected with the Register till the close of its ninth volume, when he transferred it, by sale, to Drs. J. Taft and Geo. Watt, but his pen was not laid aside to rust, as his many valuable contributions to our professional literature can testify.
Dr. Taylor was three times married, yet, like many other brain workers, he was left childless. His first marriage occurred in 1838, and the first wife died in 1858. He again married in 1860, and was again bereaved in 1873. In May, 1876 he wedded again, and this wife survives him.
The death of Dr. Taylor occurred June 12th, 1881, from paralysis of the heart, probably caused by overwork. Appropriate action was taken in reference to his death, June 14th, 1881, by the dentists of Cincinnati and vicinity. A report of this action may be found in the first volume of the Ohio Journal, at page 227 ; and the editor's expressions referring to the same are found at page 233.
For the excellent portrait of Dr. Taylor adorning this num-
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
9
ber, we are indebted to the kind courtesy of his nephew and sur- viving partner, Dr. J. I. Taylor. His former students will fancy they hear him lecture when they look at it.
This sketch has been prepared when severely tried by per- sonal embarrassments ; yet it ha^s been a labor of love, and conse- quently pleasant. If any think too much of the space has been given to the times preceding the professional ] if e, let such con- sider that to understand the physician, the dentist, lawyer, or minister of the gospel, you must understand tne man from which he has been made; for it is certainly quite as true that
"The boy's Ihe father of the man," As " night's the mother of the <lay."
Besides, the professional career of Dr. Taylor is " known and read of all men," while but a few know his labors and trials that led him along into his sphere of usefulness. All who were famil- iar with his early life were, like Dr. Jones, not at all surprised at his success, for they knew that the root of the matter was in him.
CHEMISTRY AS APPLIED IN DENTISTRY.
BY L. P. BETHEL, D.D.S., KENT, O.
It is our intention in the following notes on chemistry, to present, in a concise and practical way, the leading features of different elements that are important to consider in the study of dentistry, and that should be familiar to every practitioner, and especially to every student of dentistry. The subject as present- ed consists of notes gathered here and there, intermingled with original thoughts ; and if we err in our statements we sincerely hope our kind brethren will not hesitate to make corrections and thus aid us in the study of this profound science.
In taking up this subject we assume that our readers have a general knowledge of chemistry, and therefore do not consider it necessary to go into detail, and consider all the elements that may be found in chemical works in general.
Beginning with hydrogen, because it is the unity of weight of the gases, we find in itself no particular features of special interest to the dentist, but some of its compounds are exceedinglv so. Take for instance
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
PEROXIDE OF HYDROGEN.
Hydrogen dioxide, or oxigenated water, as you choose, and it is found to consist of two equivalents of H and two of O, thus expressed b}^ H202. Nothing more or less than one volume of O added to each volume of water, (H20). But herein lies its vir- tue : It is prepared by the action of two parts hydrochloric acid (2HC1) upon barium dioxide (BaO). When thus treated the fol- lowing reaction occurs :
2 HCl+Ba02=BaCl2+II202 resulting, as you see, in hydrogen dioxide, H2 02, and barium chloride, BaCl2.
It can be prepared also by passing carbonic acid gas (C02) through water (H20) in which is barium dioxide (BaO). The reaction taking place is
C02+H20+Bap2=BaC03+H202. Barium carbonate, (BaC03), bejng precipitated as a white pow- der, which is insoluble in water, and the extra atom of oxygen contained in the carbonic acid gas, or carbon dioxide, unites with the water to form hydrogen dioxide solution H2G2.
When concentrated it is of a syrupy consistency, haviug an acrid taste. It parts very readily with the extra atom of oxygen, and hence it is a very unstable compound. At 36° F. the gas is slow- ly given off, and as the temperature is increased the evaporation becomes more rapid. Exposing it to light also hastens evapora- tion ; hence the necessity of keeping the solution well corked and in a dark, cool place. The aqueous solution ordinarily used does not, however, part so readily with its oxygen, although it is quite essential to use these precautions would we keep the liquid in a good state of preservation.
When peroxide of hydrogen comes in contact with animal tissue, or organic material, one half of its oxygen is readily sepa- rated and acts on them. It is this quality that makes it useful in suppurative diseases of the mouth as alveolar abscess, diseases of the antrum, pyorrhoea alveolaris, etc. When injected into the pus pockets of pyorrhoea an effervescence immediately follows, supposed to be due to the evolution of carbonic acid gas, caused by the action of liberated oxygen on the tissues. When thus lib- erated, the oxygen is in its nascent condition and acts to its full- est extent on the organic material, oxidizing and destroying the
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
11
germs, or microbes, that may be contained in the pockets. The liberated oxygen unites readily with the sulphur and hydrogen of the tissues, which union results in the formation of sulphuric acid, (H2 S04), and carbonic acid gas. The sulphuric acid acts as a stimulant to the surrounding tissues, and excites them to healthy action by glazing over the pus producing area, and thus allowing the protoplasm to form new tissue.'
HYDROCHLORIC ACID.
Hydrochloric acid, (HC1) is formed by the union of hydro- gen and chlorine in equal equivalents of the gases. In its true state, HC1 is a colorless gas, but readily unites with water, one volume being capable of absorbing 432 volumes of the gas, in which proportions we find it at the drug stores. It is readily made by treating common table salt fNaCl) with sulphuric acid, (H2S04). The reaction is as follows :
H2S04+NaCl=HCl+HNaS04 resulting in hydrochloric acid and hydrogen, sodium sulphate. This acid is one of the supposed factors in the production of caries of the teeth. It is not definitely known just how HC1 is formed in the mouth, in sufficient quantities to produce decay, but it is thought that the brown decay is the result of its destruc- tive action on tooth material.
Teeth have, undoubtedly, been affected by the medicinal use of HC1. It is known to exist free in the gastric juice, in propor- tion of about 0.2 per cent., and is often thrown into the mouth in vomited matters, and in eructations. It has been detected in abnormal saliva, and its presence there, in the mouth, is probably due to the decomposition of soluble chlorides of the saliva, by which chlorine is liberated. This having a strong affinity for hydrogen immediately combines with the Irydrogen of the water in the fluids of the mouth, and HC1 results, which, in its nascent condition, attacks the tooth substance. In a concentrated form it dissolves animal tissue. Its escharotic effect is due to its affin- ity for the water in the tissues, and its power of coagulating albu- men.
To test for this acid, take the fluid, and if of alkaline reac- tion, acidulate with nitric acid (HN03), and if the acid be pre- sent, a white precipitate will appear. Further, add nitric acid to
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the solution and boil. The precipitate does not dissolve. Filter and treat the precipitate on the filter paper with warm ammo- nium hydrate (NH4OH), and if the precipitate dissolves it shows the presence of hydrochloric acid.
In the dental laboratory it is used in dissolving zinc to form a flux for soldering. The flux thus formed is not hydrochloric, or muriatic acid, as is quite generally supposed, but is an aqueous solution of chloride of zinc, the reaction being as follows :
Zn+ 2HCl=ZnCl2+H2. The chlorine, having a greater affinity for the metal zinc than for the hydrogen of the acid, unites with it to form zinc chloride and the hydrogen is liberated. This unites with the oxygen of the air and the combination forms water (H2 O), thus we have an aqueous solution of chloride of zinc as the result of the reaction. This acid attacks most of the metals, but has no effect upon gold or platinum, only when united with nitric acid in the proportion of three parts HC1 to one of HX03. The reaction then occur- ring is as follows :
3HC1+HN08==2H20+¥0C1+Cl2 water, nitrosyle chloride and free chlorine result. The nitrosyle chloride passes off as a yellowish red gas, but the free chloride attacks the gold, dissolving it, forming trichloride of gold (AuCl3).
Hydrochloric acid readily attacks aluminum, which is the principal objection to using this material for the base to artificial dentures. The action of HC1 on this metal being
Al2+6HCl=Al2Cle + H6 forming aluminum chloride by liberating the hydrogen.
NITRIC A( ID.
(HX03).
This acid can be prepared by treating sodium nitrate with sulphuric acid.
2JS"a^03+H2S04=Na2S04-f2HX03. N itric acid and sodium sulphate resulting. The specific gravity of the strongest acid is 1.52, but of the commercial acid {aqua fort Is) only 1.29. In the concentrated acid there is about 68 per cent, of nitric acid, but only about 46 per cent, in ordinary aqua fortis. HN03 acts on all the metals except gold and platinum, yet does not thoroughly dissolve tin and antimony. . Its great
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
L3
oxidizing powers are due to the readiness with which it gives up its oxygen, 67 per cent. Sometimes the acid will seemingly not act on some of the metals as iron, tin, etc., in the concentrated form, but readily attacks the metals upon addition of water. This is supposed to be due to the fact that metallic salts, resulting from the first attack of the acid, being insoluble in the concen- trated acid, cover and protect the surface of the metal from further action ; but by the addition of water they are washed down and dissolved so that the acid then acts very energetically. In the case of iron the coating is probably magnetic oxide, which is very sparingly soluble in strong nitric acid.
When any of the metals capable of decomposing water, as zinc, tin, aluminum, lead, copper, iron, etc., are dissolved by UNO 3 ammonia is always formed, its quantity increasing with the degree of dilution. Take for example the metal zinc when acted on by dilute HN03, it has an affinity for the oxygen of the water and the liberated hydrogen in its nascent state unites with the acid to form ammonia and water, besides the zinc oxide. Keaction :
HN08+H8=3H204-ra3. HX03 when heated to redness is decomposed into nitrogen tetroxide, water and oxygen. When exposed to the light and air, at the ordinary temperature, the same change takes place, giving a yellowish tint to the acid, and diluting it. The fumes that arise from decomposing nitric acid are chiefly nitrogen tetroxide and, although not offensive, are dangerous to life. Dur- ing such operations, or in cases of accident by spilling ILN03, the operator should be supplied with plenty of fresh air and retreat from the fumes that arise.
Autopsys of persons poisoned by inhalations of this gas, show the lungs to be filled with a black fluid. Iron has an affin- ity for the gas and we may suppose the destructive influence is due to the absorption of the gas by the iron in the tissues and blood. This would clog up and destroy, to a certain extent, the minute air cells, and the proper oxygenation in the lungs could no longer be produced.
Nitric, as well as all mineral acids, exerts a destructive influ- ence on tooth material, and is supposed to be the prime factor in the production of white decay of the teeth. Its presence in the mouth is explained by Dr. Geo. Watt as follows :
14 THE OHIO JOURNAL
" It is a singular fact that though nitrogen and oxygen man- ifest but little affinity for each other, yet they unite in various proportions, forming at least five well known distinct compounds. It appears, however, from a variety of circumstances, that their tendency is to unite in the proportions which form nitric acid. The protoxide is decomposed and yields nitrogen, oxygen and nitrous acid. The binoxide, if brought in contact with the atmosphere takes from it two equivalents of oxygen, and also becomes nitrous acid. Hyponitrous acid on admixture with water, is converted into nitric acid and binoxide of nitrogen in which case the latter will be converted into nitrous acid, which, in the presence of water, is converted into nitric acid and binox- ide of nitrogen.
It follows from this that, if oxygen and nitrogen unite at all in the mouth, let the proportions be, at the first, what they will, nitric acid must be the ultimate result, as air and moisture, the only agents necessary in the transformation, are here always present.
The reader will now think of the mucus, and particles of nitrogenous food lodged about the teeth, undergoing decomposi- tion and yielding nitrogen to the oxygen of the atmosphere, or of the fluids of the mouth, and will conclude that all is explained. Well, perhaps it is. But let us consider. Nitrogen is emphat- ically a ' conservative ' element and manifests but little tendency to unite with anything, and especially oxygen. It is probable, therefore, that these two elements unite indirectly. It should be borne in mind that organic nitrogenous bodies contain hydrogen and oxygen as well as nitrogen. Consequently, by their decom- position, these elements«are all liberated. The mutual affinities of hydrogen and nitrogen take precedence, and the result is the formation of ammonia. But ammonia exposed to the action of oxygen is always decomposed ; oxide of nitrogen is formed and of course nitric acid is the result."
The test for nitric acid can be made by the introduction of brucine or any of its salts into the liquid. If the acid be present, the fluid assumes a red color, or a greenish-blue solution of cupric nitrate is formed by the addition of metallic copper.
When applied to animal tissues an escharotic effect is pro- duced, and if prolonged a disintegration occurs. A peculiar and permanent yellow stain is a characteristic of this acid. It is
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
15
effectually used as a caustic in ulceration of the mouth on account of its oxydizing qualities. Where the teeth have been worn away by mechanical abrasion, and the pulp is nearly exposed, the acid is sometimes applied to the grinding surfaces of the tooth for the purpose of devitalization. -
(To be continued.)
OHIO STATE DENTAL SOCIETY.
TOLEDO, OCTOBER 26, 27, 28, 1880.
[Reported expressly for the Journal.]
( Concluded from December Journal. )
TIN AND GOLD COMBINED FOR FILLINGS.
Dr. J. Taft : What is the object of using a combination of tin and gold, instead of soft gold \
Dr. Bkophy : You can manipulate the soft gold as easily as the tin and gold, but, in the Independent Practitioner for August. 1884, Dr. Miller, of Berlin, earnestly advocated the use of tin and gold. He claimed that, twenty years before, Dr. Abbott, of Berlin, had made such filling. Miller thought it the best amal- gam filling he had ever seen, cut into it and he was astonished to find it tin and gold. Miller claims that it has prophylactic qual- ities, which I do not fully endorse, and that it becomes harder than gold and harder than tin — crystallizing in the cavity. He also claims that slight moisture does not impair its qualities and there- fore it is useful in filling children's teeth. It can be burnished down after the manner of Herbst. You roll together a strip of No. 4 gold and a strip of pure tin foil, when done it resembles a barber's pole. The advantage of soft gold is, that if a mass of it is struck in the centre of the plugger it will spread, but a mass of cohesive gold, will draw, to the centre. I have a little lip or annex to my matrix to go below the gum, at the cervical margin, it is slipped on the matrix and the ligature is carried down out of the way and retained by it, but not necessarily forced into the gum. I do not think it good practice to attempt to put cohesive gold into that position (at cervical margins below the gum.)
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THE OHIO JOtlRXAL
Dr. Allport : Quite likely, Mr. President, I had better not have made use of the word clumsy, which Dr. Rehwinkel takes exception to, when I referred to Dr. Herbst's instruments, for, as he says, many of them are very small. Illy adapted, I presume would have been a better term, for straight instruments, no mat- ter how small or delicate they may be are not well adapted to working around corners, or into deep or hidden under-euts, any more than the straight course of a ball from a rifle is calculated to follow the angles or crooks in a rail fence.
As reference has been made here to the practice of combin- ing gold and tin foil as a filling material by folding two or more leaves together because they can be more easily packed than gold alone, and also that in time the two metals become crystallized and hard, I want to add that while both of these claims are true, they are, in my mind, not the most important reasons for the practice. It is said that there is no difference which of the two metals is folded upon the outside and comes in contact with the tooth. This I believe to be a mistake, for the sulphide of tin produced by the combined action of these metals and the fluids of the mouth, is a powerful antiseptic. The product being insolu- ble in the fluids of the mouth, its action is not only continuous in preventing decomposition, by virtue of its antiseptic properties, but it also acts as a permanent filling and makes good, or fills up minute defects between the filling and the tooth — an advantage not so fully derived when the gold is placed in contact with the tooth. Gold alone has no beneficial therapeutical effect upon a tooth, while tin has. Tin not only prevents decay by preventing the ingress of the fluids of the mouth, but by its antiseptic prop- erties. In using these metals in combination therefore, I always place the tin upon the outside, or next to the tooth. Forty years of experience and observation teach me that largely by virtue of its chemical products in the mouth, of all the filling materials known, none acts more kindly upon the dentine, or is so sure to prevent or arrest decay, as tin.
Dr. A. W. Harlan, Chicago : What is the history of this Herbst method ? Planishing gold isn't new. In 1874 Dr. J. Taft filled a tooth before the Illinois State Dental Society by bur- nishing bits of gold into the cavity, that proves its antiquity, [applause]. Years ago both Shumway and Chance advocated planishing gold with smooth points. Why it is as old as the hills. What is the object in filling ; to fill the cavity or restore the con-
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
17
tour of the tooth ? Dr. Allport says it involves a great sacrifice of tooth substance, but didn't the old methods involve a greater sacrifice ? It cannot be made to take the place of hand pressure or mallet. You cannot restore the contour with rotation and soft gold. I say this dogmatically because I believe it. [laughter.]
A method that involves the holding of the gold with a matrix until you get it all in, does not commend itself, (I refer only to the Herbst method and matrix). Does any one contend that pressure will make non-cohesive gold cohere, so as to withstand the force of mastication ? This is one of the most misleading things to inexperienced operators and slovenly operators that has ever been published, [applause]. I have tried this method. More than two years ago I got a full set of these instruments, rose-shaped, cone-shaped, etc., etc., burnishers, and filled teeth in and out of the mouth, and have had all I want of it. I don't pro- pose to abandon in a day, a method I have labored twenty years to acquire. Suppose you can fill a cavity in fifteen or twenty min- utes. Why I can pack a book of gold into a cavity in twenty minutes, so can Allport or Rehwinkel [Rehwinkel — No I can't.] What's the condition of dentistry in Herbst's own country ? There are hundreds of dentists in Germany who do not use an eighth of an ounce of gold foil in a year. I have been in Ger- many and I have seen there more amalgam, more oxyphosphates and chlorides, in front teeth, than in any other portion of the whole world. Dr. Herbst is an ingenious gentleman, but his method has not been adopted in his own country. Of course that is not a proof that it is not good. Because the dentists of Chicago do not adopt a common sense method of treating alveo- lar abscess, that doesn't say the common sense way isn't a good one. Any method of filling which requires, in every instance, that a cavity be banded in order to fill it, is wrong.
As to tin and gold. Tin is not as good a conductor as gold, and that is one reason why it should be used. We have as a result of the decomposition of the tin in the mouth, the oxide, the binoxide, the chloride and the sulphide. The oxide is soluble in acids present in the mouth. The binoxide is insoluble in acids but will combine with alkalies and their carbonates and is then soluble in water. The chloride is moderately soluble in water and blackens very slightly, but in the presence of water an oxy chloride is obtained. The sulphide is insoluble in water or in the presence of alkalies unless there be an excess of sulphur. 'If there be any
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
therapeutic action of tin on the tooth it is either as an oxychlo- ride or a sulphide. I know that this combination of gold and tin becomes hard. In removing a filling, put in ten years ago, on account of sensitiveness to thermal changes, I found the filling hard to cut and the sensitiveness had disappeared. I, and no doubt many others, have used the thin steel between the inferior incisors, in filling proximal cavities, for years. I thought every- body did that, and so never said anything about it.
Dr. W. H. Dorrance, Ann Arbor : Tin hardens the dentine in a sensitive tooth and makes an insoluble filling.
Dr. C. H. Land, Detroit : Have used tin, experimentally, for four years, and in that time have found twenty cases of crys- tallization.
Dr. H. A. Smith : I remember a filling of Dr. Allport's that was a marvel to me and satisfied me that tin and gold had prop- erties of crystallization. I thought it was amalgam. Had been in eight or ten years on the proximal surface of a second bicus- pid. It was a beautiful filling, with the margins perfectly pre- served. Have never seen any explanation why we have this crystalline result.
Dr. F. H. Rehwinkel : We ought to congratulate ourselves that there is one subject on which the State Societ}7 is unani- mous and that is tin. [applause.]
Dr. T. W. Brophy : I don't think it quite fair to say that Herbst uses his matrix to hold his filling. It is to give shape or form to the cavity and filling.
Dr. J. F. Siddall : A matrix is sometimes necessary to hold fillings after they are in. [laughter.]
Dr. George W. Keely gave an account of a tramp of " a long time ago " who used to travel between Oxford and Indianapolis. He usually bought his gold foil in pound lots and used hand-pres- sure in filling. [We presume he referred to our old friend, Mer- chant Kelly, of whom we may give some sketches later on. — Ed.]
OPERATIVE DENTISTRY.
BY DR. J. A. ROBINSON, JACKSON, MICH. [Read before the Ohio State Dental Society, Toledo, October, 1886.]
To keep up with the improvements of the age for fifty years is no small task. It is a mark of genius to be able to make pro- gress to the end of life ; to overcome the hindrances that beset
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
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us and keep our feet from sticking to the clay of old age. The temptation of age is to rest, to work prescribed hours and draw pay ; or not to work at all and be satisfied. We go back and lose power when we cease to become greater than our work, for to make progress at all, we must be greater than the labor we per- form. When the work is greater than ourselves we invariably fall behind, become old fashioned and are superannuated. To make progress is the blossoming fruitage of what we have gained in information and culture ; and in dentistry, in science, in art, and in mechanics, and the art is only successful when carried out on scientific principles. As a profession we shall be what the ao-gre^ate 0f what each individual has become. If we fail it will be because there is not light and knowledge in the individuals ; hut we shall not fail /
The same humanity belongs to all, and the effort of the mass will make each individual excel. Of course there will be different efforts, tastes, and different gifts ; but the effort of each individual will place us all on a higher level. If A succeeds bet- ter than B, it is, as a rule, because he has made greater effort. To keep pace with all the improvements in our own profession, we must be students, and read and understand every thing per- taining to our calling.
Operative dentistry means every operation upon the teeth and gums, and everything that pertains to the oral cavity. It means every appliance necessary to do the work of preserving the teeth, and some knowledge of therapeutics, chemistry, metal- lurgy and mechanics, and the skillful use of tools. It means the improved methods of the old plans that were true in saving teeth- Nine-tenths of the employment of the dentist is in filling teeth. The first requisite to good fillings is to be able to see what you are doing. So in molars and bicuspids the openings must be made free either by wedging or chiseling or the engine bur. It was a common practice in Boston fifty years ago among good operators, to extract a molar or a bicuspid tooth, if partially decayed, to save by filling the adjoining one, as the space would be sufficiently large to insert a good filling in the old fashioned way, with such instruments as could be obtained at that time ; for every dentist was obliged to make his own instruments. An- other essential is to prepare the cavity to receive the filling, and by this I do not mean so that the filling will not come out, but
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
with such care as will make it easy and possible to hermetically seal it and make it impervious to all outside influences. What can I say to impress upon you the importance of properly pre- paring cavities? If you would spend one half the time you spend in finishing your fillings in preparing the cavity, youwould be great gainers in the end and do more good. Where there is chem- ical abrasion on buccal surfaces and a milky whiteness to the enamel, it is useless to tr}^ to preserve such teeth without that milky enamel is thoroughly removed.
In reading the descriptions of the Herbst method of filling teeth, I was pleased to learn that he stated that it was necessar}r to often examine the borders of the filling with a fine, sharp point as the work progressed to see that the gold was absolutely in con- tact with the walls of the cavity, because the success of every fill- ing depends on that word care. If the method be pellet, or rib- bon, or Herbst, the success will depend largely upon such exam- inations of the borders with a fine instrument to see and know that your filling is absolutely tight against the walls, and any method will be a success that is done in that way.
Having been taught in the Harwood and Tucker school it is easy and natural to follow the pellet plan with soft foil along the margins, and especially as some of our best young men still advocate their use. I think this method more nearly corresponds to the Herbst plan without the use of the engine, because he uses soft foil borders. But because we do this, we should not ignore the great advance that has been made by the combination of cohesive and of heavy foils. It is the skillful combination that makes success, and not insisting that either way is always and wholly right. Our successes in difficult operations are so much in advance of ancient dentistry that comparisons are inadmissi- ble. All annealed cohesive foil should be as heavy as No. 6 and so on to No. 60, from the fact that the crystals have become so flattened in process of beating that it requires about 400 degrees of heat to raise them to the best welding point, and thin foils are liable to be burned at the ends of the crystals in passing through the flame in process of annealing. Use finely serrated points near the finish, and lastly a smooth mallet burnisher. To be cer- tain that there are no depressions in contour fillings that will dis- gust you, take a sharp straight file and file from point to cervical wall, as the carpenter would use his jointer to level a piece of
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
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wood, it will not destroy the welding properties in the depres- sions, but will expose them that they may be filled before the final finish, if the file has been carried evenly across the face of the contour. How many times in large fillings we would give half the price of the work if we could finish out some little depression that annoys us. When a section of a tooth is to be replaced, if you have no screws, take a piece of thin gold plate of suitable width and the thickness of a separating file ; bend it at right angles and place it in the hole drilled for the screw, leaving the trough toward that portion of the tooth that remains, and fill it tight into the hole and use it as you would a screw ; the little grabs on either side of the gold will hold the filling even firmer than a screw and the gold trough is stiffer than the screw. Take strips of foil rolled on napkin-like cylinders, from one-half to three-quarters of an inch in length and weld one end on a line with the tooth, and returning weld the other end in the same line ; then upset the end that comes below the point or cutting edge of the tooth, as a blacksmith would upset a piece of iron or steel for strength ; lay these long strips lengthwise of the tooth and bind across the strips with heavy gold running to the edges of the cavity with gold as heavy as No. 60 and your contour will never come off. If the hand is so moist that it will rust your instruments, do not allow the gold to come in contact with it as it will destro}r largely the cohesive quality. The best test is to rub the^palms of the hands together, if they give a rustling sound, such as the farmer hears when he decides his hay is dry enough to be put into the barn, the hand will not injure the cohesive quality of "gold. In finishing fillings, if you wish to do better than others, finish with strips ; but if you wish to beat yourself, finish with disks. Never use a flat-faced point near the border of enamel; foot pluggers should be conical on the face to pre- vent checking the enamel borders, similar to Butler's No. 16, but with a longer foot, and the mallet burnisher should have the same form. The dentist is made strong by the combination of methods he includes, rather than by what he excludes, and his dentistry will be the same.
I have carefully looked through the whole catalogue of pluggers to find a universal one that is fit to weld cohesive to soft foil, or tin foil, or fibrous filling, and cannot find it. I will see if I can prescribe one : Take a No. 18 plugger, White's cat-
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
alogue, and twist the point just half around like a cork-screw, so that it will be on a line with the shank, and have the twist begin three-fourths of an» inch from the point, then sharpen the point to a stunt knife blade cutting edge ; serrate with two serrates like No. 18. This will leave three fine points with two serrates. Sharpen with a stone to an edge and it will unite everything. If you wish to reach undercuts have the twist shorter, but always observe the rule to twist half round and have the point to follow the shank to receive a direct blow from the mallet. By passing such an instrument as this around the filling near the margin of the cavity and spreading the gold against the borders, you can successfully stop all leakage and at the same time prepare the surface for the heavy foil of the finish. Of course use finer ser- rates and a mallet burnisher for the final finish. Cohesive gold will spread more easily over the soft foil base than a cohesive foil. Nine-tenths of the failures commence at the cervical walls in molars and bicuspid teeth, hence the necessity of great care in preparing the cavities. A spoon -shaped excavator will leave the cavity in better shape at this vulnerable point, and hand pressure is safer than mallet force. The matrix is essential to success. I use fibrous material in all dangerous places believing that it is the best material known for the average operator. Fibrous filling is more easily finished, more compact, checks thermal changes, when it is finished it has antiseptic qualities, and if it turns black it is of no consequence if it only saves the teeth. It will not turn black unless it is overlaid with gold. When we can express with the fingers what is formed in the mind we shall succeed and not before. If there is a deep undercut at the cervical wall that impairs the integrity of the filling, there will be failure at this most vulnerable point. It is a good thing to wipe out deep- seated cavities with carbolic acid before filling, as it mitigates the pain in filling and also after the work is completed.
The successful operator in carrying out any system of filling teeth, must carry out to the letter not only the plan laid down, but the instruments necessary to do the work. The Herbst method must have the point, the bulb and the engine if he expects success; so the filling with pellets must be done with graver-pointed instruments to perfect the packing of soft foil. The best description I can give of the graver-pointed plugger is a medium sized excavator with the point broken off one-third, and
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
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sharpened on all four sides, and on the end to a fine cutting edge on an oil stone. This instrument will carry the pellet before it and never pass through it, and having no serrates on the end will leave no pockets. In making pellets take a sheet of foil and cut it into halves and cut each half crosswise into four or five pieces. Crimp these pieces on the fore finger of your left hand or on a napkin with a knife, double them in the middle, fold in the edges and give it a slight roll between the thumb and finger. Before placing them in the cavity, anneal the but-end, and carry them to the walls of the cavity until they stand round the walls like the fingers on the open hand, but always packing against the cervical walls first until the cavity is at least half full, and have each piece go to tlie bottom of the cavity and reach a little above the margin. By packing gold in this way and with this instrument you will keep your cavity as large at the bottom as it is at the top until the last piece or wedge of cohesive foil, and you will have a surface of annealed foil to receive a finishing of heavy cohesive foil. The Herbst method may supercede all other methods in time for the filling of teeth, but it will not become universal this year, so I have ventured to give an old plan to the young practitioners. The points of resemblance between the Herbst and the old are these : Herbst commences with a large cylinder; the Tucker plan with a large pellet. Herbst uses a German-silver matrix soldered ; we use a thin steel matrix tempered to a spring temper, or a matrix of wood. Both finish with cohesive foil ; Herbst packs with rotary motion with smooth instruments and the engine ; we use smooth sharp points and hand pressure. Both use soft foil margins. The folding of pellets belongs to Tucker, the graver-point to myself. If after protracted operations you have soreness of the tooth and inflam- mation, chloroform is king of pain after filling, and in fact of almost any degree of inflammation that precedes suppuration. Depletion of the gums with the fine point of a spear-shaped nerve instrument for scarification, will immediately arrest all inflamma- tion, and in cases of soreness I provide my patients with a small bottle of chloroform to take with them on leaving the office to bathe the gums after severe malletings. If you have exposed pulps and inflammation so the patient has toothache, treat with strong carbolic acid to paralyze the pulp and reduce the inflam- mation by depletion of one or two drops of blood, your success is
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
almost certain if capped with oxyphosphates. The only danger in capping pulps is in the displacement of the cap. Two or three years ago I wrote about filling a tooth in sections to obviate that difficulty. First cut out the cap at the cervical wall and fill half full, and over one-half the cap with soft gold foil, textile foil, or tin to secure it in position, then remove the other part of the cap and fill in the usual manner, using great care not to crush the cap, as the little particles of the crushed cap will produce extrav- asation of blood that will be followed by inflammation and sup- puration. If the work is properly done it will be successful and the pulp will remain alive.
In all remedies for cure of the disease known as pyorrhoea alveolaris the solution of the problem is to heal by first intention ; the injured parts must be hermetically sealed to insure success. Whether the disease is produced by microbes or the excrementa- tions that follow in their track is not positively known. If the disease is caused by acid excrementations, carbolized potash will neutralize the acid until it is harmless ; and if it is caused by the microbes the carbolized potash is powerful enough to destroy their life, and it will close the pockets more effectually than any remedy I have known ; and so I predicate my theory upon the hypothesis that having thoroughly removed all necrosed bone, if such a thing exists, by amputation, the lesion must be covered as in any accident to the human body or any wound you would heal by first intention. The carbolized potash applied on cotton fibres will extract the debris when the cotton is removed and cauterize the alveolar border and leaves a fresh wound to be healed from within, as all cure and all life must come from within. If the disease is caused by a calcareous deposit, either in incrustation or loose particles combined with animal matter, and the general filth of the mouth to produce a pus-sac that forces the margin of the gum from its normal position, there will be loose gums and a purple line along the border just below the festoon of the gum and it will stand out from the tooth ; this must be removed with an instrument (a chisel) running toward the apex of the tooth before applying your remedy.
The carbolized potash is very efficacious in another form of disease known as sanguinary calculus caused by engorgement of the blood vessels along the border of the alveolar process, that produces a bright red line with small shoots or branches just
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
25
below the border of the gum ; but this will yield by persistent and frequent use of carbolized potash known as the Robinson Remedy. Before the word pyorrhoea had become generally received to designate this form of disease it was called struma or scrofula of the gums, and was treated with nitrate of silver, chlo- ride of zinc, or creosote, on the point of a sharp stick, but it gen- erally resulted in loss of the teeth ; since we have more thor- oughly understood the disease there are but very few cases that will not yield to treatment. In very obstinate cases where the secretions are ropy, stringy and viscous, with dentine so sensitive you can hardly touch it, I pack the interstices and gums with prepared chalk every night for a week or ten days and success is certain. When carbolized petash is used as an obtunder to sensi- tive dentine or over an exposed pulp, it will produce slight pain ; the potash turns the fatty portion of the pulp into soap and com- bining with the albuminous matter they both form an eschar that adheres to the surrounding border of the dentine and leaves the portion of the pulp as healed by first intention, and alive if the eschar is not broken in subsequent capping or filling of the tooth. There are sometimes cases (though sometimes means not often) of acute inflammation of the pulp that refuse to yield to conservative treatment, that must be destroyed and removed. In such cases apply the one-thousandth part of a grain of arsenic on fibres of cotton moistened with carbolic acid, directly, if possible, to the pulp ; after four or five days of rest remove the entire pulp from the pulp cavity and canals with a Donaldson nerve bristle, and enlarge the canal enough to have free access and no more. I use carbolic acid on cotton fibres in the pulp canal to remove soreness after the operation and fill the canals with cotton. Use repelant cotton or common cotton as it is filled with oil and will not absorb moisture if any should remain to produce gas and inflammation. In the event of unex- pected soreness after the operation of filling, drill a small hole to the pulp cavity and apply chloroform and you give immediate relief through the cotton, which cannot be done if the canal has been filled with oxyphosphates, gutta-percha or metal. You will find among White's instruments a small, square handled, steel instrument, marked " Gates's patent," " special order," that is the only good, better and best instrument I have found to put fillings in the canals after extracting the pulp. In cases where you have
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
subsequent trouble and soreness, do not remove the filling but drill a small hole on a line with the root you wish to reach and treat with cotton fibres wet with chloroform or tincture of acon- ite and iodine, equal parts, until the soreness is removed, then fill the hole you have drilled and you will save all further trouble and save the tooth. Soreness of the tooth and toothache, though they may be combined, are not the same, and do not often pro- ceed from the same cause, the one is inflammation of the pulp and the other inflammation of the surrounding membrane.
It may be maintained by some that it is not good surgery to place cotton at the mouth of a wound ; but cotton fibres filled with carbolic acid or a fine rope that can be packed tightly at the foramen, form a complete eschar at the extreme end of the root like a cork in a bottle ; and if the balance of the canal is left open to the pulp cavity it will do no mischief. I have had occa- sion to treat roots temporarily in this manner, and fill temporarily with Hill's stopping that have remained many months and when removed there was no odor or subsequent pain or trouble.
In this paper, (that is altogether too long,) I have only sug- gested some things that may help to leave 61 foot-prints in the sands of time," that will assist a brother on his way and contri- bute my mite to the meeting, and renew some old friendships with new expressions of love, without which, as St. Paul says, we are as " sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal/'
DISCUSSION.
Dr. C. T£. Butler : There is no antagonism between this textile fibrous filling and foil. The diverse opinions are caused by the difference in the manner of manipulating it by various operators. Have used it ever since it was first introduced until the day before I left for this meeting. The longer you use it the better you like it. Some men who are experts in the use of tin may fail with the textile foil because they do not thoroughly pack the latter into the cavity. Use only small pieces. If you use large masses you will be fooled in the filling. Properly inserted it is nearly as solid as cohesive gold.
Dr. C. H. Harroux : Burnishing, or rubbing it in, gives bet- ter results than with serrated points.
Dr. J. A. Kobinson : Textile foil is made of pure metals
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
•11
only ; tin, platinum and gold, cut with a machine and packed in the manner in which you receive it. Prof. Flagg has analyzed it and found it as I have stated.
Dr. W. H. Dorrance : Dr. Robinson once said that when a man got to be sixty years old he ought to be shot.
Dr. Robinson : When I said that I was a young man and I have changed my mind. When I reached sixty, my daughter, who is married and quite well to do, wrote me to leave off prac- tice and settle down with them in Dubuque, Iowa. My answer was that I was good for something better than settling down to carrying in kindling-wood and wheeling about the baby-carriage. [Laughter and applause.]
Dr. W . EL Dorrance : I use fine binding wire instead of the silk ligature to carry down the rubber dam.
Dr. J. R. Callahan : I find that the Herbst method makes a more solid filling of fibrous foil than can be made with serrated points and the mallet.
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
BY C R. BUTLER, M.D., D.D.S., CLEVELAND, O.
[Read before the Ohio State Dental Society, Toledo, October, 1886.]
At the very threshold stands the interrogator, confronting us with, Items of Interest to, or for, whom ? If we were to take the seductive statements that are to be found in the avalanche of announcements in the journals and elsewhere, we would be con- strained to admit that the manufacturer had nothing but items of interest for every one, and dentists in particular.
Now let us take a glance at facts from a practical stand- point, rather than on the sentimental line. It is said that the public press wields a mighty sword ; but it does not take a very wise head to see that it is not used to lay bare and magnify the truth, that the loathsome spirit of contention and untruth may not have room to display its hideousness and depravity. Some of the literature claiming to be " published in the interests of the profession,1' has a hook for the suspension of a bruised head, a scratch or a thrust that a captious member was decorated with by another pugnacious one ; both thus securing a free advertise- ment that they were at a meeting of the society ; an item
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
of interest that should be decapitated by the sword of profes- sional pride.
The items of interest and of value that have come from the large and small manufactories, are only to be computed by the thousands, and still the effort is to get something new and novel. Machinery is all the rage, and the more complicated and expen- sive, embodying much of unsightliness, the more desirable. And are the dentist and his patients so greatly blessed that they should drop on their knees and exclaim, Oh thou god-machine, make me thankful morning, noon and night with the thought that brains and common sense are no longer needed as an essential element in making up a really skillful dentist.
But with a portable or a cycloid chair, an engine, an electro- magnetic, or the mechanical mallet, dies and forceps for crown work, or the instrumental array of How's system, a cylinder gum- lancet to be used with the engine, the complicated and clumsy chip blower, also to be used with the engine, a guide rubber dam punch of no practical adaptation, as compared with the forceps punch, a new mode heater, or a dry-steam vulcanizer the latest for celluloid and rubber work ; and not to have a set of Riggs* scalers, your outfit would be quite incomplete.
Armed with all these more than wonderful appliances, just put the patients in the chair, as lumbermen would a log upon the mill-carriage, set the machinery in motion and magnificent fill- ings, crowns and artificial dentures, to say nothing of the gum cutting, will be the result.
In all candor, gentlemen, can we answer the interrogator, by saying that these are items of interest such as earnest, intelligent people^demancl of manufacturer, publisher and professional men %
OBTUNDENTS FOR SENSITIVE DENTINE THEIR VALUE AND MODE OF
ACTION.
Dr. H. A. Smith : Dr. Harlan has stated to some of us that he has been experimenting with the Herbst obtundent and obtains better results by leaving out the sulphuric acid.
Dr. A. W. Harlan : If I understood aright the formula, as given here by some one in this meeting, is two drachms sulphuric acid to sixty grains of cocaine and two and one-half or three drachms of sulphuric ether. As originally published it was
OF DENTAIj science.
29
stated that thirty grains of cocaine saturated two drachms of the acid.
Dr. J. Taft : That was my experience. Herbst did not give the number of grains.
Dk. Harlax : We find, by experiment, that it requires seventy grains of cocaine to two drachms sulphuric acid. We found that leaving a sound tooth, in a solution of this proportion, for two weeks had no effect whatever on the tooth. On one of the teeth left in this solution the dentine was exposed and after removal was found intact so that no injury to the teeth need be feared. In use we find that it must be applied and reapplied because it is self-limiting. A better obtundent is ten grains of the alkaloid (crystals) of cocaine and ninety minims of sulphuric ether. This makes a perfect solution and oiie application of it will act with more certainty than the Herbst and it is not self- limiting. A solution of fifteen or more grains is superior to the sulphuric acid solution. An exposed pulp can be removed easily and without pain after a few minutes contact with this solution (cocaine-ether). We know that ether is a refrigerant and anaes- thetic and that it does not injure the cocaine.
Dr. H. A. Smith : Is the direct effect on the dental fibrillse or is it on the pulp \
Dr. Harlax : I don't know.
Dr. Smith : In our use of these obtunders we proceed as if we could affect the true nerve fibres but we get only a superficial effect. The tubuli are in no sense nerve fibres. When you apply the excavator or the sulphuric acid you produce only a mechanical effect. According to Dr. Black, the pulp of a tooth in its normal condition is sensitive to only thermal changes. If a tooth is pulpless it knows nothing of the shock produced by cold or hot water ; the effect is on the tissues of the mouth. The action of arsenious acid in obtunding sensitive dentine is very mysterious to me, unless it is by intussusception ; it may be drawn in by the protoplasm of the dentinal fibrils and carried on by its current until it does reach the nerve fibrils, or the pulp, proper.
Dr. C. R. Butler : If the arsenic was placed into a cavity dry would it be possible to produce the effect?
Dr. Smith : I believe that would be the best method to pro- duce the death of the pulp. If these fibrils contain protoplasm they must be brought in contact with the agent. There is a
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
difference in the sensation produced by a sharp or a blunt exca- vator ; the dentine has a certain amount of sensibility.
Dr. J. Taft: The effects of any obtundent will vary in different cases. Chloride of zinc sometimes removes the sensi- tiveness of dentine without pain, and often permanently ; again the result may be the death of the pulp. Sometimes the sensitiveness returns, after various lengths of time, with the original vigor. Supposing the effect permanent I have introduc- ed fillings and in a few days found a return of the pain with all its primary severity. In the use of the sulphuric acid there is a dissolution of the lime in the tooth.
Dr. Harlan : Isn't it the crystallization of the cocaine within the cavity rather than the decomposition of tooth sub- stance ? *
Dr. Taft : I think not. So far as it breaks up the tooth substance it is an escharotic. In most cases the obtunding power is very good and one application is enough, and in others the effect is very superficial. As I have said before, this variety in manifestation is an important element in the use of any agent. We should bear in mind the great diversity in the organic con- stituency of the teeth.
THE CORRECTION OF IRREGULARITIES OF THE TEETH.
Dr. Talbot, Chicago : Until four years ago the mechanical forces in use in moving the natural teeth were six — the lever, the wedge, the screw, the inclined plane, the wheel, and the axle. Dr. Coffin, of England, was the first to add to the number and the first to use piano wire in regulating the teeth. The six mechanical powers mentioned are all cumbersome. An appara- tus should be small, and easily removed by the patient for clean- ing. The piano wire is the best material for regulating the teeth because the movement is uniform. There is a certain point in a spiral spring that gives a uniform pressure and if made large enough will produce uniform pressure for twenty-four hours. You can make these springs [the Talbot spring] I show you by driving one end into the bench, then twist the wire with a pair of pliers giving it two or more coils or turns as you desire a weak or strong spring. A spring can be worn a week without change of tension and one spring answers for many cases. In the case
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before you, I have made two small plates of rubber along each side of the jaw, and then, after a little study as to the best place, • I bore holes in the plates, to receive the prong ends of the wire spring. Always drill the holes in such a position that the plates will not fly away from the teeth. In making the plates cut the plaster cast so that the prongs of the plates pass between the teeth and help hold the plates in position. Another way is to make a band of thin platinum around the teeth, bore holes to receive the springs and spring into place. If the holes are deep enough the force of the spring will hold the plates in place. " To move teeth on only one side, make a plate large enough to take in one side and then make a smaller plate for the side to be moved. The cause of the increasing number of cases of irregu- larity is the premature extraction of the temporary teeth. A case where the temporary teeth were extracted on one side of the jaw caused a marked deformity. There is no deformity on the other side where the teeth were allowed to remain until ready to be shed. I believe it to be necessary to preserve and retain the temporary teeth. Have noticed where the temporary molars have been extracted too early the permanent molar pushed forward and did not leave room for the eruption of the cuspid, the follicle of the cuspid being further up.
Drs. Talbot and Keely demonstrated the correction of irreg- ularities in the mouths of patients of Dr. Harroun, besides explaining the various methods by means of molds and plates. A special vote of thanks was given these gentlemen.
A SPECIAL CASE.
BY DR. J. H. MORRISON, CONNERSVILLE, END.
A public speaker had lost the four superior incisors, and left bicuspids and molars. A number of rubber plates had been worn which had badly abraded the cervical portion of the left cuspid, considerable absorption having also taken place, it was necessary to fill out the arch and protect the tooth from further abrasion. On the right side the upper teeth were all in place and the lower ones all gone.
A denture was desired that would be reliable in public speak-
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THE OHIO JOURXAL
ing, preserving the natural articulation and sufficiently strong to bear the entire force of mastication, without much strain upon the left cuspid, which was already weak from absorption of the process.
With corundum wheels the shoulder, made by wear of cervi- cal portion, on the left cuspid, was cut away, and the crown of the two cuspids brought as near parallel as practicable, open faced caps were made fo^ them and on the distal surface of the cap for the left tooth a rectangular block or lug was soldered (a) and its ends slightly rounded. For the caps, closely fitting collars were *made. The one for the left being slit and a projecting camber (b) formed, to pass over and enclose the lug. The caps were cemented on the teeth and the collars soldered in proper position to a very narrow skeleton plate, covering only the alveolar border. Gum teeth were waxed on the front of the plate and plain teeth on the side, using a facing tooth instead of the first bicuspid. A catch spring (V) corresponding in width to the lug, is then inserted in the chamber of the collar, passing its straight end up through an opening in the top of the chamber and bend- ing it over by the pins of the first bicuspid, packed and vulcan- ized the rubber secures the spring in place. Under a firm pressure when the piece is inserted in the mouth, the spring passes over and above the lug, securing the piece from any tendency to dis- louVe, while it is reaclilv removed for cleansing.
The cast having been trimmed so the plate would not bear on the tissues immediately around the left cuspid, the force of mastication is borne by the alveolar border and the continued usefulness of the tooth made as secure as possible.
Should it ever be necessary, the rubber may be cut away from the end of the spring with an engine bur, and the spring replaced with a new one.
Dr. A. W. Harlan, of Chicago, uses the oleo-resin (alpha-resin ?) of kava- kava for sensitiveness of the necks of teeth. It is applied about once a week, two or three applications being sufficient, usually.
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MY METHOD OF BRIDGE-WORK.
BY H. W. IU'XYAX, D.D.S., EATON. OHIO.
There is no doubt that bridge- work is very valuable in many instances, for partial dentures. But the great cost of the gold process places it within reach of comparatively few, while there are fewer practitioners of dentistry that thoroughly understand the swaging and soldering of gold that is necessary in the con- struction of the gold bridge-work. The method here described will place it within the reach of all who can afjprd a plate of any kind, and it can be constructed by any one capable of making a vulcanite plate, and I think it will last as long as any bridge- work, or as long as the roots, to which it is attached, will last.
Process of Construction : for a case where the four incisors are missing and the cuspid roots remain : —
After cutting the cuspids down to, or a little above, the mar- gin of the gum, prepare by drilling out the canal with an inverted cone bur, and then a pointed fissure bur. By so doing a perfect funnel shaped canal is formed, which gives strength to the work, and facilitates access to the end of the root. Take a platinum bar long enough to reach from one root to the other, and bend at right angles to form the pins. JSTow set the bridge support in place, after bending to conform with the gums ; and take the impression and articulation. Make the model, place on the artic- ulator and wax on vulcanite teeth. Remove from the articula- tor, flask and vulcanize, after covering all the rubber with vulcan- izable gold.
Gum teeth can be used for the bridge between the roots, if the alveolar process has been absorved very much.
After vulcanizing, clean up and fasten in by placing a little cement on the pin that extends into the cavity formed by the fissure drill. The rubber will fill that part formed by the invert- ed cone.
Use the best rubber, run the vulcanizer up slowly to 300° Fah. and vulcanize for one hour and fifteen minutes. You will have "a thing of beauty, and a joy" to your patient and yourself.
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DENTAL HEMORRHAGE AND ITS TREATMENT.
BY OTTO ARXOLD, D.D.S., COLUMBUS, O.
In a recent number of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette-*^ Sunday issue — there appears among the Covington news items, an account of a young man who had several teeth extracted at the dental college in Cincinnati ; and as a result of the operation had dental hemorrhage to the extent, it is alleged, that a fatal termination was averted only by the calling in of a physician who said, " A butcher could have made a better job, and if not called in as soon as he was, the man would have bled to death in a few hours."
I do not wish to offer any special defence for the college, as the custodians of that institution are capable of defending it themselves. But the above comment is suggestive, and whether the assault is called for or not, affords food for reflection, and stimulates me to contribute a few practicable hints concerning dental hemorrhage.
Dental hemorrhage, and a knowledge of its cause, and the means for successfully arresting the same, are not it appears, as well understood among medical men generally, as the importance of the subject demands ; hence, we frequently hear, and occasion- ally see published, such sentiments as the above, intimating, if not purporting, that the cause must necessarily and altogether be due to butchery and lack of skill, and can never be due to the operation itself, if well and skillfully performed.
I'll admit that the unnecessary laceration of adjacent parts due to lack of skill or carelessness in extracting teeth, or in the performance of any other operation of a surgical nature, involv- ing- more tissue than the nature of the case demands, therebv enhancing capillary hemorrhage at least, and upon the whole — complicating the lesion — such practice is unscientific and deserves to be earnestly and vigorously condemned.
Persistent hemorrhage following tooth extraction, is nearly always due to the hemorrhagic diathesis ; and when this condition is present, we may expect continued hemorrhage, more or less, in every case. No matter how carefully and skillfully the operation
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is performed, bleeding, to a greater or lesser extent, will follow, and if the operation has been a bungling one, with extensive laceration of tissue, the inducements are most excellent for devel- oping one of those extreme cases we occasionally hear about.
In the June issue of this Journal, is recorded a fatal case of hemorrhage following tooth extraction, occurring in St. George's Hospital, London. We have every reason to believe that the details of the various operations — and they were numerous — from the extracting of the tooth to the final plugging of the canal containing the inferior dental artery, were skillfully per- formed, and yet hemorrhage recurred and the pateint expired.
The surgical or mechanical management of a bleeding tooth socket, on account of its environments, is necessarily difficult, and the means that could successfully be resorted to for wounds in other localities, would be altogether impracticable here. There- fore, we must direct more attention and study to correcting the diathesis systemically, and abandon all heroic local applications, whether surgical or chemical.
I have had the most gratifying and perfect success in many cases of excessive alveolar hemorrhage, by relying entirely upon astringents given internally, such as opium and lead, and tannin. But beyond everything else, gallic acid has afforded the most prompt and satisfactory results. Referring to the IT. S. Dispen- satory, I find this :
" In all hemorrhage in which the bleeding vessels are to be reached through the circulation, gallic acid is the most efficient, as its chemical affinities do not afford the impediments to its absorption as those of tannin, etc." My favorite prescription is : 9 Gallic Acid 3 i
Acpa Cinnamon J ii
Sig. Tablespoonful every hour until bleeding is arrested.
Two or three doses usually suffice to produce a clot and all trouble is then over.
In connection with the above, the tooth socket should be gently but securely packed with tannin. For this purpose I use a saturated solution of tannin in water, saturating a pledget of cotton in the solution, and packing it firmly into the socket.
Persulphate of iron, either in solution or salt, should positively be discarded from the list of styptics, as unreliable, on account of the frail clot it produces and the tendency to secondary hemor- rhage following its use.
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I am satisfied that the milder course is the better in these emergencies. Powerful styptics, heroic plugging with wood or similar materials, the actual cautery, and surgical operations, are not now in place, and must be abandoned for the more scientific, pleasant and reliable one of systemic medication. In many cases careful observation might disclose complications, as consti- pation, congestion or some specific cachexia, requiring a judicious systemic regimen, etc. Such I would transfer to the medical fraternity, as we can't conveniently extend our professional servi- ces beyond our offices, besides, they, the m. f. already claim that we are already tresspassing upon their domain.
Coi^e^cpoqdende.
" I charge you that this epistle be read."
LABORATORY INQUIRIES ANSWERED.
BY DR. L. P. HASKELL, CHICAGO.
A letter received from an Ohio dentist asking the following questions, and as I am constantly receiving letters of similar character, I have concluded that an answer through the Journal might be helpful to others.
1. Will common Babbitt metal make good dies? No, because it is too soft ; lead being used instead of tin in order to cheapen its cost. The proper formula for dental dies is 1 part copper, 2 parts antimony, 8 parts tin, to be melted in the order named, otherwise the tin would oxidize badly. Melt in a cruci- ble, and, as a high heat is needed, take it to a foundry or to a blacksmith's forge. This metal has all the requisites of a dental die.
2. What do you use for counter-dies and how obtain them from the Babbitt metal dies f Use lead with tin added to reduce its melting temperature as pure lead would adhere to the Babbitt die. Take 5 pounds of lead, 1 pound of tin, coat the die with whiting; insert partly in the sand, place a ring around it and pour not too hot. It is never necessary to use the ring in swag- ing.
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3. Do you put paper between the joints before soldering? Iso need of it. The backings should not meet except at the base.
4. What is. your investment for soldering? Piaster and sand equal parts ; enclose in a sheet-iron ring an inch wide and a little larger than the case.
5. What kind of -soldering appliances do you use ? A con- venient appliance for holding the case is made of sheet iron, Cl- inches in diameter, semicircular in form, open, on the straight side, with a rim 1 inch deep, and a 10 inch handle riveted to the bottom, at the corner, diagonal to the cup. Heat the case as hot as possible over the gas.
For heat, if gas is used, form a bulb 1 inch thick, by winding fine wire over the end of the gas pipe, using no fixt ure upon the pipe, or use three or four thicknesses of fine wire gauze. Either will give a flame like a lamp, requiring no force to control it. Use a blow-pipe with large orifice for the mouth, to be pressed against the lips, and with a good sized opening for the blast, so the whole flame can be utilized. Such a blow-pipe is now made by the S. S. White Co., at my suggestion.
I prefer 20 carats plate, and solder of the same fineness, and never less than 18 carats. The nearer the solder to the melting point of the plate, the better it works, not rolling up but blending right with the plate. Plate should be made of pure gold with an alloy of pure copper and silver. It is not necessary for the dentist to make his solder while the White and Justi establish- ments furnish so fine an article.
" HAMAMELIS VIEGINICA/'
In the Ohio Journal of Dental Science for October and November, 1886, we see extracts from other journals, etc., that decry the virtues of Hamamelis as a remedy. Without going- into particulars in reference to these " wishy-washy" remarks, we will state that the remedy in question has borne the test of time in a most remarkable manner. By reference to dispensatories of over fifty years ago, we find that it was known to have been used by the Indians as an application to painful tumors and other cases of external inflammation, and it was also recommended by such dispensatories as a wash in hemorrhoidal affections and opthalmia, also to be given internally for bowel complaints and hemorrhages.
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The range of Hamamelis as a curative agent is here clearly indicated and which has been clearly borne out in its use by the profession for more than a score and a half of years. There is no phase of hemorrhage, scarcely, but that it is applicable, espe- cially in those from the uterus, the lungs, the stomach and the bowels.
The vast amount that is manufactured, sold and used of this drug is truly wonderful. It is said that one firm alone has put millions of bottles upon the market, and yet the profession and the public cry for more. To say that iron, tannic acid, or gallic acid, will do what Hamamelis will do, are not borne out by expe- rience. Hundreds and thousands of remedies have arisen and had their brief day of notoriety and decline since Hamamelis began its course and it is still holding on its way.
The Medical Record may say that St. John's wort thirty years ago and arnica later, were used and lauded by American housewives, as good applications to aching limbs, and still more recently the extract of witch-hazel has superceded these and can see no reason for its having any virtues over alcohol and a dozen other things. Reference is made to the tannic or gallic acid which the Hamamelis contains, as to be credited for its good effects. This is perfectly silly ; for on this principle of judging or reasoning the merits of the great member of standard reme- dies, so to speak, could be explained away.
J. Marshall and H. Wood may say that after numerous exper- iments, they find Hamamelis has no effect upon the vascular sys- tem of our bodies and also talk about faith, etc., yet I believe I could find thousands of physicians who would give testimony in an opposite direction, and those physicians, such as Drs. Wood and Marshall, and as well Dr. Guy of Paris, would acknowledge to be of good repute. Facilis est descenstts * * *.
Chicago. D. A. Colton, M. D.
OPERATING IN" A SOUTH LIGHT.
Editor Journal : — Will you please answer through the Jour- nal or have answered, How, to best regulate a south light for the dental operating room ?
Mt. Carroll, III. James W. Cormany.
[We have operated in a south light for ten years, and prefer
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it to a north light, using two spring-roller shades ; a drab or brown one, starting from the sill of the window, to pull up by meaus of a cord and eccentric pulley above. The other, of white goods, to pull down from the casing above, thus tempering the sunlight and using the lower one as a rest for the eyes, drawing it as high as necessary according to the intensity of the light. May be some of our readers have a better plan, if so we hope to hear from them. — Ed.]
"Write the Vision and make it plain.''
DELAYED.
In order to present the report of the meeting of the Ohio State Dental Society while still fresh, we are compelled to carry over several valuable contributions and favors from our corre- spondents, including Dr. Keely's illustrated article. They will appear in the February number.
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ASSOCIATION.
Don't forget the coming meeting of the good, old active, energetic, wide-awake mother of societies, the Mississippi Yalley Association of Dental Surgeons. We told jou. about a gold medal to be awarded for the best essay, besides a great many other things, — we told you in the Journal, in an Editor's Special, just after the close of the annual meeting last year.
Those actively responsible are anxious to have the coming meeting surpass all its predecessors, and they are working like Nehemiah's returned Israelites when rebuilding the walls of Jeru- salem. Each worked at his respective place, and " the people had a mind for the work." ~No wonder they waked up the natives by their quick success. Now each one of you do likewise. You who are to prepare papers, do so promptly, and right now send the title of your paper to Dr. N. S. Hoff, 264 Pace street, Cincin- nati, Ohio, who is chairman of the Executive Committee. The committee is anxious to issue, in good time, a program, giving a
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list of the papers to be read and discussed, along with the other matters to be set forth therein. You can do this at once ; for even if you have not begnn, or have not even settled on a subject, select your subject at once, notify him, and then write it up. It is important to have this program in the February issue of the Journal, and the Register at least, to say nothing of the other periodicals. This is another reason why you must be prompt. You can do the work now quite as well as in week after next. Do it. Do it.
And as soon as you get the program, read up carefully and thoroughly on the subjects presented, and then you'll not have to sit and suck your thumbs while the others discuss professional science.
The President writes me that he has papers promised from Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago and Cincinnati, already, but those are not enough. He wants one from your place, we forget the name of it just now, but you know where you live, and that is the very place from which a good paper is wanted. We'll all hold you responsible for its production and presentation. Be there with your paper, and with a professional brother who ought to be, and is willing to become a member.
AS OTHERS SEE US.
We take the following from an editorial in The Dental Re- view :
"OHIO STATE DENTAL SOCIETY.
" One very noticeable feature of the methods of this society is, that the board of directors do all the business, so that no time is wasted in aimless discussion. We hope to see other societies follow this good example. In some other respects, however, the society is behind the times ; notably, in the preparation of a pro- gramme of scientific work. We believe in the system of having a subject and a particular essayist to read a paper on that sub- ject ; after the reading of such a paper or essay, an intelligent discussion is pretty certain to follow. According to the method now pursued by this society, some one is called upon to open the discussion on a subject, and if he fails to open it properly or suc- cinctly, a very rambling discussion takes place, which may or may not be valuable. In spite of this defect in the government of the
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society, the meeting was a success, as many new members were enrolled, and at times the debates were spirited and of considera- ble value."
We are glad to see this kindly criticism of the methods of a dental society and hope our journals will keep it up, pointing out the good, as well as the bad points, thus leading to the dis- cussion and, we hope, the improvement of association proceed- ings. Other reforms are called for, some of which were pointed out in the book reviews of our December issue.
OBITUAEY.
EDMUND OSMOND, M.D.. D.D.S., CINCINNATI.
Dr. Osmond was born in Hereford, England, October 8, 1828. He received a medical education in his native land and came to this country in 1850, practicing medicine in or near Sidney, Ohio, for five years. He then spent several years in England and on returning to the United States attended lectures at the Ohio Col- lege of Dental Surgery, graduating in 1856, and from that time practiced dentistry in Cincinnati, until a few months prior to his decease. In 1867 he was married to Miss Edwin, of England who, with three daughters, survives him.
Dr. Osmond was an ingenious, energetic and industrious man ; a good operator, keeping well posted in the advance of medical as well as dental science. He invented the improvement in the hand-piece of the dental engine by which the bur could be removed or replaced without stopping the engine, also instruments for inserting gold screws to retain fillings in large cavities. He was expert in the use of electricity for dental purposes, many of his devices being original.
Below we give the action of the profession in Cincinnati, at a meeting held in the office of Dr. A; Berry, who presided. Dr. H. L. Moore acted as Secretary. Besides these there were pres- ent Drs. J. Taft, H. A. Smith, C. M. Wright, Frank A. Hunter, O. K Heise, E. G. Betty, Chas. Junkermann, K. A. Porre, H. A. Downing, K. E. Taylor, Frank W. Sage, M. H. Fletcher and Will. Taft. The following, setting forth the feeling in regard to the death of Dr. Osmond, was adopted :
."Whereas, We have received the sad intelligence of the
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THE OHIO JOURNAL
death of Dr. E. Osmond, who has long been identified with the interests of the dental profession in this city ; and,
" Whereas, We, as members of the dental profession, have assembled, deeming it most fitting and proper to give an expres- sion of the esteem and regard in which the deceased was held, adopt the following :
" Resolved, That we most i\x\\j realize in the death of Dr. Osmond the profession has lost a faithful member, one who was justly entitled to the respect and regard of all who knew him. He always evinced a great interest in all that pertained to his chosen profession, as a result of which, in several particulars, much was by his skill and genius added to its resources. Its pro- gress was ever a matter of solicitation to him. For his friends he had an unusually strong attachment, and in every way he was a person of strong and decided views.
" Resolved, That we tender to the family our most sincere and heartfelt sjmipathy in this their great bereavement and sorrow.
" Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent in proper form to the family, and a copy furnished the press for publica- tion;'
Similar action was taken by the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine, of which Dr. Osmond was a member.
JOEL P. ULREY, D.D.S., RISING SUN, INDIANA.
Dr. Ulrey died at his home, Nov. 9, 18SG, in the seventy- fourth year of his age. He suffered for nearly a year previous to his death, but not until eight months before did the disease, con- sumption, compel him to take to his bed. He was a native of Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio. His father and grandparents came to the Northwest Territory from Pennsylvania in 1800, stopping for a while in Kentucky, and afterwards purchasing a farm in what is now the heart of Cincinnati. Dr. Ulrey studied dentistry in Cincinnati with a Dr. Boyd, before the daj^s of den- tal colleges. He rendered valuable aid in the establishment of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery and was awarded an honor- ary degree by that institution. He practiced dentistry for about fifty years, establishing three offices at Rising, Sun, Aurora and Lawrenceburg respectively, spending two clays of every week at each office. In the forty years that he lived at Rising Sun, it is
\
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said that he missed his visits to the other offices only five times on account of ill health.
He married a lady of French descent, Miss Sarah Igoe, who survives him. They had no children. He was a good citizen, always willing to help on every worthy enterprise. He was kind and generous, too much so for his own worldly advantage. Alto- gether he had fewer faults than most men. A zealous and con- sistent member, for forty-three years, of the Methodist Church, he died in that faith. He was also a member of the I. O. O. F.
$odietie$.
"Wherewith one may edify another."
MEETINGS.
Louisiana State Dental Association, New Orleans, February 23, 1887.
Ohio Dental College Association, Cincinnati, Tuesday, March 1, 1887.
Mississippi Valley Association of Dental Surgeons, Cincin- nati, Wednesday, March 2, 1887.
Michigan State Dental Association, Ann Arbor, Tuesday, March 29, 1887.
Northern Ohio Dental Association, Cleveland, Tuesday, May 10, 1887.
Mad Kiver Yalley Dental Society, Dayton, Ohio, Tuesday, May 17, 1887.
Illinois State Dental Society, Jacksonville, Tuesday, May 10, 1887.
Kentucky State Dental Association, Louisville, Tuesday, June 7, 1887.
Indiana State Dental Society, Lake Maxinkuckee, Tuesday, June 28, 1887.
Pennsylvania State Dental Association, Cresson Springs, Tuesday, July 26, 1887.
Southern Dental Association, Old Point Comfort, Virginia, Tuesday, July 26, 1887.
American Dental Association, Asheville, N. C, Tuesday, August 2, 1887.
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International Medical Congress, Dental Section, Washington, D. C., September, 1887.
AN INTERNATIONAL DENTAL CONGRESS.
ACTION BY THE CHICAGO DENTAL SOCIETY.
[Reported by A. E. Baldwin, M.D., D.D.S., Chicago.]
At the close of the meeting of the Chicago Dental Society Dec. 7th, 1886, and after a motion had been made to adjourn, and many members had left, Dr. T. W. Brophy offered a resolu- tion endorsing the preamble and resolutions passed by the First District Dental Society, of the State of New York, in regard to the organization of an International Dental Congress, to be held in this country, and asked that a committee of three be appointed to confer with the committee of the First District Society.
The following is a report of the discussion upon the resolu- tions :
Dr. W. W. Allpoet : To the holding of an International Dental Congress, at a suitable time and place, and under favora- ble circumstances, no valid objection can be raised. While, there- fore, I can approve of, and will vote to endorse, so much of the resolutions as call for the organization of the proposed Congress, I can not endorse some portions of the preamble, nor certain con- clusions stated in the resolutions just read, for they seem to me to be rather presumptuous.
The third clause of the preamble reads (reading from the Inde- pendent Practitione?*), " Whereas, Dentists throughout the world look to their professional confreres in America for the further ad- vancement of dental science ; therefore," says a portion of the first resolution, "that immediate steps be taken looking to the forma- tion of an International Dental Congress, to be held in this coun- try at as early a date as arrangements can be made which will make such a congress a credit to the dental profession in America." Without venturing to justify the modesty of the claim in the pre- amble, or even to criticise it, I will suggest that as the diplomas of few of our dental colleges are recognized in most of the lead- ing European countries as an evidence of qualification to practice in those countries, this claim is hardly borne out by the facts in the case. While the dentists of this country may excel in handi-
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craft, manipulative skill, our "science" hardly outranks that of the educated dentists of England or some of the other European countries. I would much prefer, therefore, and it would, in my judgment, have been better had the clause to which I have made reference, been left out entirely.
While I can see no objection to an International Dental Con- gress, I can see no need for great haste in the matter, nor can I see that any claim set forth in the preamble is sufficiently true to justify the First District Dental Society of Xew York, or the practitioners of this country, in demanding that the Congress shall be held in America, whether or no, if held at all. There need be no great hurry in this project. To push the matter with undue haste, would imply, or seem to imply, that the leading spirit in the undertaking had some ulterior or selfish motive at heart, which prompted this hasty action, as there is now but a few months before the meeting of the International Medical Con- gress, and the work of the Section of Dental and Oral Surgery in it.
If it is desirable to organize an International Dental Con- gress, it seems to me, it would be better to wait until the meetings of the American Dental Association and of the International Medical Congress in this country next summer to perfect the plan. Then when representative dentists are assembled, from all the countries in the world, have a conference together and determine what shall be done, when it shall be held, and if held, whether it shall be in this country or some other ; rather than to start out with the claim that the dental world is looking to this country for the future advancement of dental science, and that, therefore, the Congress must be held in this country if held at all.
This, or something like it, it seems to me would not only be the right, but the judicious thing to do, if we wrould make such a Congress the success it should be. To hold a Congress too soon, if it did not, to some extent injure the section, it wrould certainly militate very greatly against its own success.
Dr. T. W. Brophy : I protest against such remarks as we have just listened to. The}7 are an insult to the profession. It is acknowledged the world over, that American dentistry is the best in the world, and the American dentists stand at the head of the profession, and to say that it is presumptuous to claim what every every one knows to be true, is an insult to American dentists,
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who have done so much to elevate the profession. We do stand at the head of the profession, and I object to having it said that such men as Drs. Dwindle, Perry, Northrup and others are selfish and have ulterior ends to accomplish in having this Congress. That committee is composed of the best men in New York, known and respected by everybody in the profession, and I object to its being said that they are selfish in what they have done. The statement that the diplomas of the dental colleges of this country are not received in Europe does not amount to anything for their diplomas are not received here. It is a mere matter of retaliation.
Dr. Allport : I am always glad to hear the good name of American dentistry defended, but to claim that the entire dental world is looking to us for the future advancement of dental " science " is a little presumptuous, and in bad taste, even though it might be true. The fact that the diplomas of some of our dental colleges are received in Europe while those of others are not, is sufficient evidence that refusal is not retaliatory.
While I shall vote for the Congress, I would like to eliminate the clauses I have referred to, for, as I have already said, the recognized dentists of many of the countries of Europe are fully as "scientific" as are the dentists of this country.
In my remarks when upon my feet before, I said nothing about Drs. Dwindle or Perry, or anybody else, as one would infer from what Dr. Brophy has just said. I said the leading spirit, or spirits, if you please, and I happen to know that the gentlemen named are not the leading spirits in this movement, and I also know who they are, therefore I do not wonder that the gentle- man is a little sensitive upon that point.
The leading spirits are some of those who schemed to get con- trol of the Dental Section in the International Medical Congress, but failed to do so. They were months la}Ting their plans, and they did their best to get certain gentlemen appointed to office, and even after the appointment of the leading officers had been made, they tried in a questionable way to get them changed. Failing in their efforts the}^ came to the conclusion that we did not want a Dental Section. The seemingly spontaneous action of the meet- ing referred to in New York, is but the result of months of hard labor upon the part of some of these same gentlemen.
In regard to the gentlemen placed upon the committee, I will say that I know every one of them, and some I believe to be
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conservative, judicious and level-headed men. And I believe Pres. Carr, in his wisdom placed them upon the committee to keep it straight.
Hoping that wise counsel will prevail, and that matters may be so arranged that harmonious action will be secured so that if the Congress is held, no matter whether in America or Europe, it may be a grand success, I will vote for the resolution.
Dr. A. W. Harlan : I would suggest that the committee be increased to ten.
Dr. Allport : Yes, make it ten.
This being agreed to, it was passed unanimously, between twenty and twenty-five members being present.
LOUISIANA STATE DENTAL ASSOCIATION.
The annual meeting will be held in Tulane Hall, at New Orleans, La., on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of February, 1887. A cordial invitation is extended to the members of the profession throughout the States to attend. No efforts will be spared to make our guests welcome and comfortable, and the meeting inter- esting and profitable. An opportunity to witness the Mardi Gras festivities will be afforded those who come, also favorable railroad rates may be had at that time. Mardi Gras takes place the day before the meeting. For further information address,
P. J. Friedrichs, Oh. Ex. Com. 155 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, La.
NEW DENTAL SOCIETY.
The Southern Illinois Dental Society was organized in East St. Louis, November 23d, 1886. A good attendance was one of the pleasing features of the meeting, intense interest was another. The officers for the ensuing year are as follows : Pre- sident, Dr. C. B. Rohland, Alton; Vice-President, Dr. T. W. Prichett, Whitehall ; Secretary, Dr. G. W. Entsminger, Carbon- dale; Treasurer, Dr. N. W. Carter. The executive committee is is composed of Drs. Jennelle, Dixon and Spencer. The society will hold its first regular meeting at Duquoin, commencing on the first Tuesday in April, 1887. G. W. Entsminger, Sedy.
Carbondale, 111.
48 THE OHIO JOURNAL
Out Sftei'mktli.
British Columbia now has a dental law.
The Dental Practitioner, Philadelphia, has been discontinued after a career of four years.
Louisville, Kentucky, has a School of Dentistry, which begins its first term this month.
The Dental Section of the International Medical Congress will soon issue preliminary announcements.
Dr. M. Stout, formerly ot Cincinnati, is one of the faculty of the North- western College of Dental Surgery, Chicago.
Dignity in Title. — A lady in advising a friend to seek medical advice said : " Be sure to see a doctor, not a 1 doc' "
A Swiss Dental Association or more correctly "Verein Schweizererischcn Zahnaerzte," was formed last year at Zurich.
"Austria and Hungary are the only countries where there are no den- tists, none but medical men being allowed to practice dentistry." — British Journal of Dental Science.
Worth Remembering. — " By means of patience, common sense and time, impossibilities become possible," was the motto of Lord Clive's life, always inscribed on the fly-leaf of his pocket memorandum book.
A Dental Circulating Library is suggested in the British JourncU of D< fo- tal Science by Dr. A. F. Hare, to encourage in the profession a more accurate and extensive knowledge of general dental history, literature, etc.
Defects of the Osseous System and Diet. — If we remember aright, it was in these very Gardens of Dublin that the young lion cubs were once found to be born with certain remarkable bony defects, of which cleft palate is an example. This defect was remedied by the careful supervision of the parental dietary. Apparently the secret of the successful breeding of the lion is due to the observance of the ordinary rules which regulate the growth of health v bodies in humanity itself. — London Daily News.
THE
OHIO JOURNAL
DENTAL SCIENCE.
Vol. YII. FEBRUARY 1, 1887. No. 2.
dor\tf ibutioi^.
"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold." — Solomon.
CASES IN PRACTICE.
BY GEORGE W. KEELY, D.D.S., OXFORD, OHIO.
The injurious consequences of the premature extraction of the temporary cuspids has been referred to most notably by Dr. Norman W. Kingsley in his work on " Oral Deformities." It is to be greatly regretted that so few in our profession seem to give this matter a thought, or have ever observed the result.
One who takes a lively interest in the prevention of irregu- larities, can do much good in his daily practice, particularly with his little patients. A permanent erupting tooth may be given a wrong direction by the remaining roots, or root, of its predecessor, and their timely removal will leave the coast clear and nature will direct it to its normal position. It is simply wonderful what the provisions of nature will accomplish if only intelligently assisted at the proper time. The temporary cuspids, if possible, should be retained until their mission is accomplished. When they are removed prior to the eruption of the first bicuspid, it will surely come forward and appropriate a part, or all, of the
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space due the permanent cuspid ; but if the first bicuspids are fully erupted and in contact, the danger is lessened. The following cuts, Kbs. 1 and 2, is the case of a girl aged fifteen years, and shows the condition of her teeth when she came to me some twelve years ago. Both her father and mother had well develop- ed dental arches.
Fig. 1.
It can be seen, in Fig. 1, that the fourteen permanent teeth are fully erupted and the six anterior gone astray — the cuspids being wholly outside the arch and the laterals and first bicuspids in contact — the left lateral was locked inside the inferior teeth half the length of its crown. Her teeth were well developed and entireh7 free from decay. The temporary incisors were not removed until after some of the permanent ones made their appearance, and soon after her dentist,. becoming alarmed at their crowded condition, imagined he was doing the right thing, and removed the cuspids long before the first bicuspids were ready to seek the light of day, thus causing the irregularity he sought to prevent.
Fig. 2.
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In Fig. 2 is shown the condition of the inferior teeth. On the right side the temporary cuspid was removed at the same time the' superior ones were, and as the teeth were shown me, with others that came out by due process of nature, I feel quite sure my statement of the case is correct. It can be seen in Fig. 2 that the right cuspid is wholly outside the arch, caused by the premature removal of its predecessor.
As we were given but a short time to regulate the case, we extracted the superior first bicuspids, expanded the second bicus- pids, and at the same time started the cuspids back, working most vigorously on the left one to get room to take the lateral out of its lock; when this was accomplished, a retaining plate was inserted to hold the bicuspids and lateral in their new positions, leaving the process of nature to carry the cuspids to the position left vacant by the removal of the first bicuspids. In the inferior jaw we extracted the right lateral, and with a rubber ligature, started the cuspid to its place. The girl was unusually well developed for one of her age, and as she had a short upper lip, the deform- ity was very marked and extremely mortifying to a pretty young girl just bursting into womanhood. My instructions were to fre- quently press the cuspids back with the thumb and finger, as this would hurry them into place. This advice was. not forgotten, for when I next met her, the first and only time two years after, her refractory teeth were in line, and she was transformed into a beautiful woman. And for the first time I was awarded an expression of appreciation for the result; her parents never thanked me or referred to the case.
Fig. 3.
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In Fig. 3 can be seen sixteen permanent teeth ; the subject a girl aged 21. The left second bicuspid is wholly inside the arch, caused by the removal of the temporary molar before the erup- tion of the permanent first molar, causing it to come forward and take up all the space due the second bicuspid ; and the anterior teeth on this side are out of line more than one-sixteenth of an inch, a better showing than is common under such circumstances. So far as we are aware but little or nothing has been written in regard to the importance of preserving the temporary molars until after the permanent first molars are fully erupted and in contact, for the purpose of preventing a crowded condition of the anterior teeth.
It is quite too common in this age, when it is rather the exception not to find the temporary molars decayed and giving trouble at the age of four or five years ; the little one is taken to the family dentist to seek relief, and the offending molar is extracted, and no thought given to the evil result sure to follow. Our observations in this line extend over almost an ordinary life time, and we have spent much valuable time in treating these molars for our little patients and giving them relief, and if we succeed in preserving only the roots in place, the permanent molar will erupt wholly or nearly in its normal position.
To the " doubting Thomas's," we say, try this experiment — such it will be to you. After or before extracting one or more of these teeth (before the eruption of the permanent first molar) take an impression, and you have but a few years to wait, when you will, if you have a conscience, observe the evil result with amazement and mortification, and that you were the innocent cause of the trouble your eyes rest upon. I will feel that I have accomplished some good if but one of the many who may read this article will refrain from using the forceps on these molars, but relieve the pain and send the little one home rejoicing.
MEKCHANT KELLY.
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
The history of the dental professsion would ever remain incomplete without a sketch of the life and professional (?) char- acter of the person or individual uniquely named as above. Fear-
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ing that those who could best do it will not undertake the task, the writer sees fit to make this effort, hoping that the readers will forgive its defects, and that it will afford them a few minutes of amusement, if not instruction.
]N"ot very long ago the barber, the blacksmith and the butcher were the general surgeons of the day ; and within the memory of some yet alive, almost every neighborhood had its natural bone-setter, and its phlebotomist, — the " bleedin' man," as the children called him with bated breath, on seeing him approaching. General surgery rose above the sphere of these characters, and they were driven to specialties, many of them extracting teeth, and claiming to know more about the business than did the physicians, in which estimate they were not seri- ously mistaken; for it certainly would have been difficult to go farther astray than did the physician with his barbarous turnkey, properly called a canthook. But the individual here considered differed from all these; and he is Very properly designated as an individual, for individuality was the strong characteristic of his mind. He was much unlike all others.
In the summer of 1844 the writer of this located, as a physi- cian at a small village in eastern Indiana, in a densely populated and wealthy community. Board and lodging were obtained on condition that a yankee school teacher, then absent be allowed to occupy the same room. At the end of two weeks the "yankee'' arrived. Having regarded yankees as the product of only the New England states, I was surprised to find that this one hailed from central New York. He had been several years in Indiana, however, and was very familiar with its geography and institu- tions.
Our yankee proved to be a small man, about five and a half feet in height, weighing one hundred and ten pounds, face wrinkled, sunburned, without the slightest color of blood about it. It looked almost as lifeless as a leather mask. He was dressed in homespun flax linen from top to toe, nothing imported but his " chip " hat. Although it was yet summer his shoes were of thick cowskin leather, with ver}T heavy soles. He had glued a layer of muslin inside the crown of his hat, and had given it a coating of coach varnish. The hat was the depository for all his valuable papers. In it were notes for money loaned to the amount of hundreds of dollars.
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In his pockets were a variety of penknives, a pocket com- pass, a watch, with a short leather string to it to render it more easily caught, a bottle of liquid glue, a horseshoe magnet six inches in length, a pair of shears, pliers, a screw-driver, a folding tack-hammer, a box of buttons, labeled " A bachelors batch of bachelor buttons," a pin cushion with an assortment of needles added, a ball of white, and another of black thread, a cobbler's awl and some wax ends, a scale and dividers, a pocket drinking cup, of his own device and make, with various other things too tedious to mention. His pockets had been made to order, and the two behind him were as extensive as the swallow tails of his heavy linen coat.
Mr. Kelly was a great walker. The roads ran on section lines, but he paid no attention to them, but with his pocket com- pass he took his bearings, and went across farms as he pleased. He was about to take a tramp of fifteen miles and back, and hav- ing a surplus horse, I proposed he should ride him. In beseech- ing tones he said if I wished he would lead the horse to his brother-in-law's and put him in pasture and bring him back as lie returned, but he hoped I would not insist on his riding. I never saw him on horseback, nor heard of him riding a horse.
He was a most accurate surveyor, and was something of a mathematical genius. In going over the country he would mend broken glass and porcelain with his liquid glue, repair defective tinware, etc., not charging a cent for such services. After a time he secured a galvanic battery and went all over the country pro- posing to cure the people's many ills by electricity. This he adopted as a calling after having become tired of teaching.
The popular notion was that much of his eccentricity was assumed; and it was claimed that a disappointment in early life entirely and suddenly changed his external character. He was very well connected, and his near relatives were like other people, the well known and famous showman, Hyatt Frost, being his nephew. His fondness for children was remarkable. He was seldom too busy to repair a boy's kite or a girl's doll.
A horse fell and threw a young physician over his head, and when re-action was established, there was a rather threatening flow of blood to his head. He asked Kelly to bleed him and showed him how to do it. The patient soon felt better, and the operator asked what blood tastes like. At once he passed into
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the kitchen, and coming oat with a teacup, he collected two or three ounces in it, and sipped it slowly, stating that the taste was exactly like that of milk. Xext he wondered if it would be improved by sweetening, and he decided affirmatively after hav- ing tried the experiment.
Another anecdote will illustrate his enthusiasm about little things, and will enable the reader to better understand his meth- ocls in changing from a school-teacher to a dentist.
A friend, who had been a teacher, supposing his name to end with the syllable "ley" instead of "ly," wrote an acrostic and left it on his desk. It was as follows :
" Marry soon lest you should be Entirely deserted ; Eemember Time's destroying stroke Can not be well diverted. Hunt up a real pretty girl, And then resolve to love her ; Nor slack till you the question pop, — Then half the battle's over. Keep in good heart, and keep despair Entirely out of mind, sir ; Love's so contagious that she'll soon Lisp out the yes, you'll find, sir. Except you then back out and run, Your single life's as good as done."
All who saw the above, including its author, considered it as quite common place, except the acrosticated hero. He regarded it with admiration, had it put in type and printed on neat slips. These he distributed wherever he wandered.
This part of the sketch may seem tedious. Let it be remem- bered that there has been but one Merchant Kelly in our pro- fession, (and certainly one was enough,) and his professional character cannot be well understood without this preliminary explanation.
About the year 1849, Dr. Eli Collins, afterward a professor in the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, located in Connersville, Indiana. He was taking the Dental Register, and perhaps some other professional periodicals. In the Register was a series of articles on filling teeth. These were probably from the pen of Dr. James Taylor. Kelly borrowed the numbers containing these articles, and in a very brief period he was tramping over the country filling teeth. For several years he didn't practice
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mechanical dentistry. He was never content to do any work, or even play, like other people. He always had a better way, or thought he had, which contented him quite as well. His uniform expression to any who objected to his modes was, "Let me show you."
Accordingly he made with his own hands most of the instru- ments he used in filling teeth, and very unique specimens they were, certainly. He had a long strip of leather eight or ten inches wide, and on this he had small loops of still softer attach- ed. These loops retained his instruments in place. When travel- ling the leather was rolled together so as to form a cylindrical body, containing the instruments. When operating he would hang the leather strip on a hook screwed into a door frame, cup- board, or wall. The screw he carried in his pocket so as to have it always ready. The instruments were all numbered, and cor- responding figures were attached to the leather at the end of each, being fastened with his own liquid glue.
His instruments and other traps were carried in the most old fashioned saddle-bags. These he put on one shoulder, and passed one strap in front and the other in the rear of his neck, and fastened them with a clamp of his own device and make. Thus his hands were left free, and as he walked along the road he could read, or make bark whistles for the little boys at his next stopping place.
In the earlier part of his practice he filled teeth mostly with tin. During this period, he informed me, he discarded amalgams entirely, and I do not know if he ever used them. He had strong prejudice against mercurials in medicine, and blamed them for the greater portion of the aches and pains of the people at large. In filling- with tin he made some innovations. He thought it a waste of labor to beat a metal into foil when its solid state answered better the desired purpose. So he made a draw-plate to exactly correspond with his bur drills. He would take a bar of block tin, the purest he could get, hammer it flat, pass it through his rollers, reducing it to the desired thickness. Then he would cut it lengthwise into strips, and pass these through the draw-plate. He would then, after preparing, say a crown cav- ity, cut off a block from his tin wire of the desired diameter, set it in the cavity, and with an instrument finished like a burnisher, and a small hammer, he would spread and shorten the block till
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
57
it fitted the cavity perfectly. Then, if necessary, he would dress off the grinding surface, and polish it. I have seen these block fillings bright, firm and serviceable, after twenty or more years of service. In carefully examining a number of them I was unable to find a leak or defect of any kind. In his hands they were as nearly perfect as tin fillings can be made. At first he used them only on the grinding surfaces of the teeth, but after learning to separate teeth, so as to gain the needed space, he often put them in the lateral surfaces. Of course they were not adapted to irregular, compound cavities.
He began, after while, to fill with gold foil ; and after using one or two books, of an eighth each, he wrote to me to ascertain the price of gold foil by the pound, half pound and quarter pound. And this calls up an anecdote :
I went into the dental depot of Dr. J. M. Brown, and found the doctor and his assistants convulsed with laughter. For a time they were not able to explain, but Dr. B. was the first to get control of himself, when he began to lament that I had not come in a few minutes sooner. Oh, doctor ! said he, you would have seen the curiosity of your life. A man, or thing, with a full suit of unbleached, home-made hemp linen, with a dilapidated chip hat, with a piece of bark tied around it, with an old pair of old fashioned travellers' saddle-bags on one shoulder, and tied around his neck, and the thing could talk ; and what do you think it wanted ? A jpoicnd of gold foil. A pound, mind you ! And again all laughed uproariously. I'd bet, said the doctor, he hadn't money to pay for two leaves of gold foil. When quiet was gained, I said quietly, — Better sell him the gold, and any- thing he asks for, if it is for sale. He'll pay his bills. Did you see him, then ? Do you know him, said the doctor. I explained, and it was not long till the doctor was on the street searching for him. Fortunately he had inquired where he could get a cheap dinner, and one of the salesmen had sent him to a place near, and there he was found enjoying his favorite bread and milk.
Some considerable time after this he wrote me that Mr. Dunlevy of Pittsburgh, was certainly an honest man ; and he would advise his friends to patronize him. As a proof of his hon- esty, he told me he had bought a pound of gold foil from him, and he borrowed a pair of correct weighing scales, took the leaves of foil out of the books, and carefully weighed the gold. It
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lacked just twelve grains of being a pound. He wrote to Mr. D., stating the facts, and he said Mr. D. sent him two leaves of No. (3 foil, to correct the error, and two more to pay him for the trouble ; and thanked him also, saying it was very important for him to know it if his scales were even but slightly incorrect.
His manipulations with gold were his own ; but he had no plan with it so special as his use of solid tin blocks. I have seen very many of his gold fillings that were well finished, and were doing very good service. Any criticisms I would suggest as to his modes of filling would begin by objection to his very free use of the file. He believed in it ; he wanted room ; and he dotingly admired self cleansing surfaces.
It would be interesting to know how many miles he traveled, in his peregrinations. For many years he tramped — not in the present offensive sense — Fayette, Rush, a part of Wayne and Henry counties in Indiana, occasionally extending his walks westward to Indianapolis, and eastward to Oxford, Ohio, or its immediate vicinity.
Once I urged him to establish an office, but I could make no impression on him by any arguments I could offer. When I told him how many teeth he might fill in the time spent walking, he replied that he must have fresh air, and time to read. These were secured by his itinerant plan. Then he called attention to the fact that within sight of good dentists, people were letting their teeth go to destruction, by sheer neglect. Such persons were reached by his method, and thus he claimed that he was doing a great missionary work for humanity. And he claimed that in his walks where he knew the people, he selected those that needed his services rather than the ones able to pay for them.
He appeared but little older the last time I saw him than he did the first time. His wrinkled, bloodless face held its own well, apparently defying time.
I cannot recall the period at which he began to make and insert artificial dentures. Before taking up this department of practice he spent some time under instruction in the laboratories of different dentists. He did honest work, in this line, but it was evident that filling was his proper part of the practice.
I cannot recall the date of his death, nor do I know his age at the close of his life. Indeed, I never did know his age at any period of a very intimate acquaintance.
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I have written this sketch partly by request ; but after all it has proved a labor of love. I have referred to no documents, nor have I consulted any of his relatives, though well acquainted with quite a number of them. I felt that if I drew altogether from memory, I would likely rescue from oblivion those traits of his character which I had most liked, or from which I had gained the greatest amusement. As he did not join nor attend the dental society meetings, but few in the profession knew him. Our genial friend, Dr. G. W. Iveely, could probably tell some interesting things about him. Dr. E. Collins knew something of his early professional labors, and Dr. Wilson, his nephew, knows much about him.
Though he travelled and practiced dentistry, he was, in no sense a huckster dentist. His motives for that style of practice were not like those of the "travelling jack,-' nor were the results of his operations similar. I never heard of his taking advantage of other practitioners, by unfair dealings. Some of them com plained of his low prices ; but he claimed that as he had not taken a regular course of professional instruction, he was not entitled to the fees received by such as had ; but he was inconsistent here, at least, for all the time he was trying to elaborate better plans, and to do better work than others.
A fair portion of our profession have seen the man. Xone will see his like again. Xature cannot afford to produce two such men. Merchant Kelly — " Mert " as his comrades called him — was himself. He was not anything else. He couldn't be.
IMPRESSIONS.
BY L. P. HASKELL, D.D.S., CHICAGO, ILL.
As the success of an artificial denture depends upon a correct impression, as the foundation of the work, care should be taken to insure success.
As to materials, I differ with many instructors. While it is true that good impressions, in some cases, can be taken with wax, more still with the modelling compound, plaster yet remains the only material, reliable in all cases. In the use of the other ma- terials, it is necessan^ to select cases suitable for each, but if one
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relies upon plaster he is sure of correct results. It may be accept- ed as an axiom, that the more difficult the case, the greater the necessity for plaster to obtain an impression.
For sl full tipper : spread a large napkin over the dress ; select a cup as near the size of the jaw as possible ; in order to obtain a high impression over the cuspids (always a necessity), place a little wax over the outside of the cup, at those points ; also over the posterior corners, if the process is prominent, and raise the palatal surface, at the rear edge, if the arch is deep.
Mix the plaster to the consistency of thick cream, and add a pinch of salt at the last moment, after the plaster is stirred, as you do not want to hasten the setting of the plaster until it is in the mouth. Stand at the right side of the chair and with the left arm around the head of the patient, distend the lips, press the rear of the cup fully into place, and so forcing the excess for- ward, press the cup fully up to its place, telling the patient to keep the tongue quiet, and not to be concerned about what may run over at the rear, at the same time pressing the lip so as to force the plaster well up under it. If nauseated, tell the patient to resist the tendency, as it will soon be over. When the plaster has set, which can be ascertained by breaking off a piece of the surplus in front, remove by raising the lip high and working the impression so as to let air in under it.
For a full lower : proceed as above, except stand in front of the patient, and as the cup is passed into place, draw the cheek away from the cup, so as to prevent a fold of membrane under -it at the rear.
For a partial lower, with the anterior teeth remaining : select a cup with an opening for the teeth, and through which they will pass easily. Wet a piece of soft paper and lay over the opening, and holding the cup in the palm of the hand, fill in the plaster, and place in the mouth, always pressing the plaster away from the front to avoid, as much as possible, having it outside of the teeth, thus facilitating removal. If there are molars remaining, and the sides of the cup will not go deep enough, place wax upon the outer edges.
In many of these cases the teeth stand in such a position that the plaster must of course break up in removal, but it mat- ters not, only save the pieces, put them together, and a perfect impression results.
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For & partial upper : proceed as with a full upper, remember- ing to press away the plaster from the sides of the cup, when there are teeth, before inserting, as enough will go outside. In these cases do not let the plaster set as hard as in a full set, as the cup in such case, is apt to leave the impression, and it has to be removed piecemeal, which is very unpleasant to the patient.
Never take an impression in wax, and plaster in it, for while the plaster will break away as in the other case, it will be so thin in spots as to be difficult to save the pieces, and replace them. Then there is nothing whatever gained by it.
It is a plain, simple process, only avoid using a great deal more plaster than is needed, or as large a cup as in full sets.
THEOKIES OF DENTAL DECAY.
BY THE EDITOR.
Possibly it was a lawyer or a recalcitrant witness that sug- gested the theory that language is given to enable us to conceal our thoughts. After a man has labored for a generation or two, using language the best he knows, to reveal his thoughts, and finds himself thoroughly and completely misunderstood, it is, per- haps, not strange if he abandons the revealment for the conceal- ment theory.
At all events we are most thoroughly convinced that we have, after honest and persistent effort, totally failed to set forth a correct representation of our views on dental caries. Had we been fortunate in the use of language it is not at all probable that such a man as our esteemed friend, Dr. Cushing, would have failed to understand us. But in his valuable and well written paper, read before the Odontological Society of Chicago, October 22, 1886, we find unmistakable evidence that he has not under- stood us, or we have all along labored under a misunderstanding. We do not claim that he has misunderstood our language, for it may have expressed the exact opposite to the idea intended. This paper we find at page 14 of the Dental Review / and by giving it a little friendly attention it is barely possible that we may yet be understood as to our views on dental caries.
On page 14 he adverts to the " fact that no one of the theo-
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ries that has yet been propounded, viz : the chemical, the chem- ico-vital, the inflammatory, or the germ has been or is satisfac- tory as considered by itself." This is certainly true. Xothing in nature or art " has been or is satisfactory as considered by itself," or away from its associative or surrounding circumstances.
On page 15 we are told A brief resume of the various the- ories is necessary to the proper presentation of the subject." And he proceeds thus : " The chemical theory holds that decay is produced solely through chemical action, regardless of other conditions." And if this is the correct definition of the chemical theory, we know of no one holding to it; and we have no recol- lection of any one holding such sentiment. And total neglect is the proper treatment for this theory ; for it has no support either from science or truth.
In defining the chemico-vital theory, the paper describes it as holding, "That chemical action is the immediate cause, but is largely influenced by varying vital conditions, or perhaps it would be best expressed by saying that the power of resistance to the action of destructive agents is so much lessened at times, that chemical' action takes place, which would not occur under condi- tions of perfect health."
This is a reasonably clear definition of the chemico-vital theory, which is in full accord with the views which we have held and tried to maintain for over thirty years. We regret very much that in upholding it we have been so unfortunate in the use of language that we are still misunderstood, as is proved by Dr. CYs remark in this same paper, as follows : " Dr. Geo. AVatt, who is probably the strongest advocate of the absolute chemical theory," etc. Often and over we have wearied — per- haps disgusted our classes by insisting on 44 the circumstances which modify affinity," and in no chemical actions more than when considering those concerned in the development of dental caries. Often have we heard our pupils in discussing such sub- jects, when one seemed a little, too absolute in reference to the action that he claimed must occur, a comrade would suggest that he must not forget " old circumstances."
Among the modifying circumstances to be considered in speaking of dental caries are the degree of vitality, local and general, the hardness of the teeth, the age,. and the sex of the patient, the character of the oral and gastric secretions in health,
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and their various modifications b}^ disease, the temperment of the patient, etc.
Every one is aware that a chemical reagent acts with more vigor on chalk than it does on marble, yet the nature and result of the action are identical. In like manner a soft tooth is attack- ed by an agent harmless to a hard one ; and dentine is corroded by agents harmless to enamel.
But after all, is there any disagreement between Dr. C. and us in this matter? He says, after defining the various theories, " It is almost certain, it seems to me, that all these theories are entitled to consideration in determining the causes of caries. I presume no one will attempt to deny that the immediate disinteg- ration of tooth structure in the process denominated caries, is caused by chemical affinity, chiefly, if not entirely, by the affin- ity between certain acids in their nascent condition and the lime salts of the substance of the tooth, but there has been great diver- sity of opinion as to the origin of these acids."
Xow we can ask for no better or sounder doctrine than the above, except that, thinking of caries as a unit, the writer has forgotten, for the time merely, the fact that in white decay, the most rapidly destructive of all, the organic material of the tooth is acted on by the chemical agent as surely as are k* the lime salts of the substance of the tooth."
We have often taught, verbally and in writing, that what- ever the predisposing causes, such as imperfection of structure, etc., may do in the production of dental caries, no tooth is so defective in substance and structure, that it will spontaneously disintegrate, in the form of dental caries, without the intervention of chemical reagents. And in thus teaching we honestly think we were upholding the chemico-vital theory, as really and as truly as it is now upheld by our friend Dr. Gushing in this valuable paper.
And if more is necessarv to show that we have no disagree- ment with Dr. C, take the following, on page 10, where he is speaking of predisposing causes or conditions. He says, " With- out some of these antecedent conditions, in very many cases there would be no caries, though acids might be formed about and upon the teeth in almost unlimited quantities ; but granted that all those conditions most favorable to the advent of caries were present, it is evident that without the acids there could be
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no decay at all. Kow these antecedent conditions are more or less remote and very difficult to deal with — the constitutional treatment which should place them under our control having not yet been devised — but where we come to the acknowledged imme- diate cause of tooth disintegration — the acids — we are confronted with an enemy that seems more tangible than any other, and are seemingly brought to the point of dealing with this question as though, as I said before, the strictly chemical theory were the true one."
It seems then that if the acids are " the acknoidedged imme- diate cause of tooth disintegration," the only matter left for dis- putation is the source of the acids. (Italics ours, here and above.) And here we are in full sympathy with all who are searching after the truth. Previous to our becoming identified with the dental profession, like most physicians, without even knowing why, we held to the inflammatory theory of dental decay, prob- ably led astray by the use of the term caries. Becoming a den- tist, we began a careful investigation, and were surprised to find all dentists worthy of the name recognizing acids as the immedi- ate, direct, or exciting cause. Some used the one, some another of these adjectives to describe the character of the cause referred to, all carefully drawing distinctions between predisposing and exciting causes. On examination we soon recognized the reason- ableness of the acid theory, but what acids ? That was the ques- tion. It is the question yet. We began a careful and prolonged series of experimental investigations and gave our conclusions to the profession, and have, so far, stood by these simply because we believe them true. We tried to give a reasonable account of their origin and still believe they may come from the sources describ- ed. But if it is found that germs produce the same acids, we have only another source to watch, while the fact says nothing against the chemico-vital theory.
The fact that many persons escape the ravages of dental caries to a good degree, who according to our theory of the source of nitric acid in the oral cavity, must have more or less ammonia formed in the mouth proves little if anything. In malarious regions many escape the ravages of the malaria, yet enough fail to escape to afford ample proof of their existence. Some have such solid teeth that they resist almost any chemical action. And the ammonia, as fast as formed, may be, in very
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many cases, taken up by the hydrochloric, carbonic, or other free acid in the buccal fluids. Nature's design is to neutralize all such mischief by chemical reagents of her own providing, and it need not surprise us that she often succeeds. Besides, our friend, Dr. C, falls into a line of thought as if nitric acid from ammonia were the only acid concerned in the causation of caries, whereas a large majority of cases are of an entirely different nature. That form of caries in which much of the organic material of the dentine is still found in the cavity, with the lime salts entirely dissolved and washed away, is by far the most common, and nitric acid and ammonia bear no relation to it. And they are alike absent in the black decay.
A case we saw not very long ago illustrates the combined action of the predisposing and exciting, or immediate causes. A healthy young lady of twenty, having sound teeth, was stricken down with typhoid fever. As is not uncommon in that form of disease, her breath was loaded with fumes of sulphuretted hydro- gen. A few weeks after recovery she had robust health, but her upper incisors, cuspids and bicuspids had proximal cavities of black decay. Is it not probable that the sulphuretted hydrogen was held in solution by the saliva, and oxidized into sulphuric acid and water, and that the depressing influence of the disease had impaired the resisting power of the vital force in the teeth, and by such combination of circumstances the result was as above described ?
Nor is it an objection to the chemico-vital theory of decay that there is "frequent recurrence of decay in mouths that are kept unusually clean, where deposits of nitrogenous food are never left to putrefy, and thus furnish the ammonia to be oxidized into nitric acid." Nor is the following sentence from the paper, in the same paragraph, an objection to the theory. Near the bottom of page 17 he says, " In many of the cases of recurrence of decay to which I refer, there is no evidence to the presence of ammonia from any source."
The above might be against our favorite theory if but one variety of caries existed, and that the one known as " white decay." But by far the most common variety of caries would be prevented, rather than encouraged by the presence of ammonia ; for if, as we verily believe, its exciting cause is hydrochloric acid, the ammonia would neutralize this acid and thus prevent its
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action by the formation of a harmless neutral salt, known as ammonium chloride.
And, on the other hand, the hydrochloric acid, often, if not generally found in greater or less abundance in the buccal fluids, neutralizes — at least it ma}7 — the ammonia present, and thus pre- vent its oxidation. So many are the modifying circumstances, that it is hard for the mind to grasp them firmly, or even to see them clearly, yet they must all be considered in the formation of correct judgment in regard to the processes involved, and now under consideration.
In a preceding paragraph we have said that the immediate, or exciting causes of dental caries is still the question of all before the profession. It is humiliating to the medical profession that the most common and probably the most painful ailment of humanity was so little investigated that the young giant Dental Surgery sprang into existence to find the physicians almost unan- imously holding the inflammatory theory of dental decay. In- deed, as far as our observation extends, they nearly all hold this theory now, or none at all. A reminder of this fact, and that they all grew eloquent in discussing about the hooks and crooks of their barbarous cant hooks, not forgetting that they actually took out people's, teeth with them, ought to tame them into the most beseeching humility whenever they incline to become too saucy and self-important to recognize dentists as their equals.
And unless this matter about the exciting causes of dental caries is soon settled beyond all possibility of dispute, the dentists will have similar cause to be humble and mindful — not of death, as the catechism has it, but — of our own ignorance and stupidity.
Perhaps no one in our profession, in the last thirty years, has been more frequently criticized than the writer of this. And we are glad to be able to state that the criticisms have always been a source of enjoyment and pleasure ; for they gave evidence that the subjects we wished to have investigated were engaging the thoughts of our professional brethren. AYe wish these thoughts industriously continued till a complete and final solution of the vexed questions is reached. It is a small matter what becomes of us or our theories, if only the truth is reached. Drive the car of advanced thought over all such obstructions, even though it grind them to powder. It is not necessary, therefore, to speak of the delight afforded by the paper read by Dr. C.
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This article was begun for a page, but it will grow, hence we may as well notice another point or two of this very sug- gestive paper.
On page 18 we find some results of Dr. Black's experiments and researches ; and for these we have a most profound respect. His report of these is as follows : " From Dr. Black's experi- ments, if I understand him correctly, it is found that these micro- organisms colonize and develop most frequently between the teeth and in their fissures, and that under favorable conditions (which, perhaps, are not yet clearly understood) they multiply with great rapidity, and are constantly giving off their waste pro- ducts in the form of nascent lactic acid in direct contact with the tooth. Xow here we may have an ample explanation of the cause of decay in such cases as cannot be traced to nitric acid, as the product of the oxidation of ammonia."
But the above extract, we fear, does not explain the most common variety of dental decay. In our experiments, quite num- erous and tried long ago, with no theory to bolster up, and with plenty of time, we found that nascent lactic acid dissolved the entire tooth substance as far as it acted, leaving a smooth surface in the bottom of the cavity, as we see in erosion.
It seems, too, that the little germs are fastidious. In order to their forming " acid they must be fed on sugar or starch, and in order that they shall produce the gelatinous material (to hide themselves) they must be surrounded at the outset with an alka- line medium."
Here we have exactly the most favorable conditions known for producing acid, if not a germ bug or bush were in existence ; and is it not a nice point to decide whether the acid results from the germs or from chemical affinity ? We have as much confi- dence in these observers and experimenters as in any we ever saw ; but when we get down to such minutise it is easy to be mis- taken. This was lately illustrated in a murder trial here. Was a certain portion of matter blood clot or debris? was the question. Microscopic experts from distant cities and colleges were consult- ed. One produced haeman crystals from the supposed clot, and from a drop of his own blood. These were magnified to three hundred diameters and placed side by side. To us they looked as much alike as flaxseed beans, or grains of wheat. The experts divided. Some said they were identical, others that they bore
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not the slightest similarity in appearance. Yet these were all experts ; and this is mentioned to remind the reader not to be too credulous as to microscopic reports ; yet we regard microscopic research as invaluable.
And before dismissing this subject we feel like suggesting a little more accuracy or definiteness as to which division of the organic kingdom produces these micro-organisms. The germ theorists so generally speak of their feeding, being fed, etc., that if charged with the crime, we shall plead guilty to the introduc- tion of the term " Bug-theory." Having used it without any belief in bugs, others copied the title, till it was forgotten who was " first in the transgression ; " and we all got a fatherly lec- ture reminding us that " vegetable life " was the true expression of their vitality. Yet the}' are still spoken of as bugs, worms, insects, etc. For instance, on page 18, Dr. Cushing says, Black has demonstrated that " they must be fed on sugar or starch." But if of the vegetable subdivision, should he not say ma?iured or fertilized with, etc. ?
In drawing to a close let us say that we are more than delighted at the suggestions offered as to further experiments. Not in good condition to make many of these personally, we are all the more encouraged. This entire question ought to be, and can be settled in a few months, and it is a disgrace to our profes- sion to permit the present state of facts to exist, and all the more if we let them continue.
In private conversations, if not in their public teachings, such men as Professors James Taylor, Chapin Harris and A. "Westcott, taught that acids in general would cause caries if in contact with the teeth ; but we never could believe that they meant this. For carbonic acid, tannic acid, and scores of others could not possibly have such effect. And some taught that to produce caries the acting acid must have a stronger affinity for lime than phosphoric acid has. And they would put in a tabular form such acids, and in their relative order. But in some para- graph (its place not now remembered) Professor Harris says that this theory will not hold, for many acids besides these are capa- ble of producing caries.
With all such teachings we were greatly dissatisfied. Bear- ing in mind that chemical actions are definite in their nature, and finding but a few kinds of chemical reactions in caries, we
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could not fail to recognize that these were caused by a corres- ponding number of chemical reagents. Hence regarding the field of investigation as thus very much narrowed, we at once, with courage and hope, raised the question, ''What acids?" And if any specific, definite, and prolonged experimentation on this question had agitated the minds of individual dentists, we had failed to make their acquaintance, or to hear of their special researches.
Our last experiment on this subject was to find a decidedly acid reaction in a covered cavity of white decay. The contents of the cavity were digested in distilled water, and this solution was neutralized with a solution of carbonate of potash. This was evaporated on a clean slide, and the process of crystallization was carefully watched, and definite crystals of nitrate of potash were formed. We had no doubt at all that, in this observation, repeated twice with the same cavity and with the same results, we had found nitric acid. Of course this would be actively tak- ing hold of the dentine and other materials, but we presume that, being partly shut away from contact with the dentine, it was formed more rapidly than it was saturated. Previous to this observation we had rested content to find the tracks of the ani- mal in the shape of nitrates.
In setting forth the results of our observations so early in our career as a dentist we feel that it is quite probable we stimu- lated thought in the direction of this inquiry. And this far more than pays us for listening to all the criticisms put forth. Again we would say that these criticisms have always given us pleasure, partly because they have always been respectful, but mainly because they gave evidence that research was taking the proper and the desired direction.
A Hint to those using Continuous Gum Furnaces. — A Chinese cook in our employ had suffered repeatedly from attacks of conjunctivitis owing to his labors over a hot stove. Not long ago he appeared in large Chinese spectacles, tortoise shell rims and plates of mica, transparent and non-magnifying. With these he goes happily 'to his work, and so far with no fear of a return of the conjunctivitis, and reasonably too, as mica is notably a protector against heat. Consulting standard works on opthalmology I find no reference to its use in occupations exposing one to conjunctivitis from heat, and the idea is cer- tainly worthy of our remembrance. — Boston Med. & Surg. Jour.
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Compilcition^.
"Gather up the Fragments."
paijst *
BY JAS. T. WHITTAKER, M.D.
It is a platitude to say that every man suffers pain. Disease, that is, lack of ease, is almost a synonym of pain. It would be a weariness to repeat the saying, that man enters life with a ery and leaves it with a groan, for while these manifestations are expressions of it, man is on both occasions unconscious of pain. Guerazzi says, in remarking upon the universality of pain : " Men are accustomed to say, faithful as a dog. They deceive them- selves. They should say, faithful as pain." Butler declares, " Our pains are real things and all our pleasures but fantastical.'' Milton writes :
"Sense of pleasure we may well Spare out of life and not repine, But pain is perfect misery, the worst of evils, And excessive, overturns all patience."
And Goethe expresses the intimate relation of pain to our bodies by fixing it in the framework of our construction, the bones. Thus Gretchen cries out in her anguish, " Wev flihlet, wie wiihlet der Schmerz mir im Gebein." [Who feels, how rages the pain in my bones.]
In estimating the importance of pain as a sign of disease we must take into account first, the degree of perception or endur- ance. Races and individuals differ greatly in this regard. Moreover, the same individual shows difference at different periods of his life. It is certainly not true that "the poor beetle that we tread upon * * * feels a pang as great as when a ^iant dies." The same fish has been caught with a bait of its own eve torn out on a former cast. Eviscerated sharks, with trailing intestines, continue to follow ships. This insensibility to pain grades up through the animal scale and shows variations in
* Abstract of an Introductory Lecture delivered at the Medical College of Ohio, Sept. 15, 1886.
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degree among species or races and individuals. Contrast the stoicism of the Spartan or Indian with the cowardice of the Afri- can or Irishman, or compare the state of the same individual in poverty and luxury. Hysteria and hypochondriasis are condi- tions which show extremes in both directions. The victim of hysteria suffers agony from an imaginary pain, or bears without murmur the infliction of great torture. In the state known as ecstatic, individuals have suffered martyrdom at the stake with- out evincing a sign of pain. The fact is, there is a point where pain becomes a pleasure, just as unpleasant appeals to the special senses, the odor of assafoetida, burnt feathers, etc., may be appre- ciated with pleasure. In hypochondriasis there is not so much, a morbid exaggeration of the sense of pain as a concentration of the mind upon the workings of the internal organs. A healthy man would feel the same pain or distress if he subjected himself to the same scrutiny.
But the power of the imagination in the experience of pain is not limited to nervous people. A sufficiently strong impres- sion may evoke it in the strongest men. Thus, Hinton mentions the case of a butcher, who. in the act of suspending a joint of meat, slipped, and hung himself by the arms upon the hook. The patient was carried in collapse to a neighboring drug store, where his coat was carefully removed under manifestations of the most agonizing pain. But when his arm was bared it was found to be entirely unhurt. The hook had merely cut through the sleeve of his coat.
On the otl\er hand, a mental impression of a different char- acter may entirely abolish pain. Thus fright gives oblivion to pain. Livingstone describes how he saw a lion spring upon him, felt it carry him to the ground and crush his arm and shoulder with its teeth, without the least appreciation of pain. So soldiers fall in the flush of battle for a long time insensible to pain. So also, as Benvolio said to Romeo, "One pain is lessened by another's anguish."
It is not so much the presence as the persistence of pain that declares the existence of disease. Evanescent and transitory pain is so common as not to excite suspicion, but constant or continu- ous pain means disease that requires attention. A transient headache ma}^ be produced by a thousand causes of trivial nature, but a persistent headache would mean serious poisoning of the
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blood or pressure upon the brain. A " stitch in the side " is a different thing from the persistent pain of pleurisy, and the pain of an indigestion which disappears with digestion is quite different from the constant pain of cancer of the stomach.
The degree and duration of pain also are of more value than its character. The excruciating pains of gall and kidney stone, of tic douloureux, the anguish of a distended bladder or an angina pectoris are paroxysmal. The pains of labor distinguish them- selves by the fact that they come and go. In fact, intense pain is never continuous and never lasts long, not because, as Metas- tasio said, u we grow accustomed to it," but because the nerve: centres appreciating pain become exhausted. Perhaps it might be true to say that they are drowned under the waves of great pain, and must have some time in which to recover. " Dolor magnus nunquam est longus," said Seneca.
The nerves of the skin have thre*e separate functions : touch, temperature, and pain. The question arises are these totally dis- similar functions performed or conducted by the same nerve- fibres? It is already a well established fact that nerve fibres of however different function are alike, and that the function of a fibre is determined solely by its attachments; and it has long been known that an impression made anywhere in the course of a nerve-fibre is appreciated at its service of distribution. What difference would it make in the ringing of a bell whether we pulled the handle, the wire anywhere in its course, or jangled the bell itself ? This appreciation at the seat of origin or insertion is known in neuropathology as the " law of eccentric projection." This law implies, of course, a continuous tract of axis cylinder from one end of the nerve to the other. It would, hence, seem probable that different nerve-fibres come to be set apart for the distinction of the different impressions made upon the skin. The older physiologists believed that the same nerve-fibres officiated for all impressions, seeing that touch so often passed over into pain, but the observation of cases in which the senses of touch and temperature were preserved, while that of pain was lost, or of the conservation of the sense of pain in the absence of that of touch, has lead, or is leading, to the adoption of the view that each sensation is conducted by its own fibres, in the mixed bun- dle of nerves everywhere supplied to the skin.
But while this view is probably correct it is none the less
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true that fibres of similar character freely inosculate. Hence it is that the sense of pain is never strictly localized. The seat of pain, in other words, is, as a rule, vague, diffuse, or indefinable. Most patients find it quite impossible to exactly localize the seat of even atrocious pain. " Giudice in justo delle cose e il dolor,1' said Metastasio. (Pain is an unjust judge of things.)
Modern science will have nothing to do with "sympathetic" pains ; such pains are reflected through associated nerves. The mystery of the shoulder-tip pain in hepatic disease was solved by Luschka with the discovery of the inosculation of the phrenic and fourth cervical nerves, and pain in the knee in hip disease, in the head of the penis in stone in the bladder, in the groin in verte- bral caries has long since met with proper interpretation. Knowledge of this association of nerve-fibres often enables us to make a diagnosis in the absence of more positive signs.
Thus Hilton makes a fine point regarding pain in the auricle, which in its upper anterior part is reflected through the trigem- inal perhaps from a carious tooth or a cancerous tongue, or if in its posterior part (great auricular nerve) through the spinal nerves which issue between the second and third vertebra? from a caries of the spine. The constant pain in the back, "between the shoulders," finds its explanation in the connection of the fourth, fifth and sixth dorsal nerves with the splanchnic in some of its ramifications among the viscera.
Disease of the internal organs does not manifest itself so much by pain as by different distress, and is much less localized than on the surface. Thus nausea, anxiety, faintness, oppression, are the signs of pain in the viscera. Perhaps the best available comparison of these different impressions is seen in the very dif- ferent sensations which follow injury to the testicles, internal organs, and the scrotum, a part of the skin.
We hear so much said of the misery of pain that we are apt to overlook the good of it. Pain, as a preserver of life, as i% na- ture's kind harbinger of mischief,*' is worth a lecture by itself. The victim of the loss of all pain, described by Spaeth, suffered every kind of mutilation and deformity before he was finally relieved by death.
The fact is that it is not often the presence but the cessation of pain that is ominous. The apathy of cholera, the sudden relief that occurs in collapse as after perforation, or after a hem-
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orrhage in typhoid fever, are entirely illusory. Hilton wrote a book which made him famous on the rest which pain compels and which often alone leads to restoration and recovery.
The effect of pain upon the character and disposition we have no time to discuss, The saturnine disposition of the gouty patient, the cynicism of the dyspeptic, and the irritability of the rheumatic are too well known. The curious grim humor of the victim of locomotor ataxia is an irony of fate. Great fortitude of character, the fine qualities of patience and resignation, are often also developed by pain and acts of heroism are displayed in its presence. Tommaseo derives the greater sympathy of woman from the pain of maternity. ''Chastened by suffering" is a com- mon saying, and none was perfect, it was written, " like unto Job." Pain teaches us, said Cantu, that " life is not a diversion but a duty," and Tommaseo declares that " a man. not educated to pain remains a child."
In the presence of irremediable pain, as in cancer, certain neuralgias, tabes dorsalis, etc., it is advisable that patients should continue at some form of employment as long as possible. "We all learn the effect of mental work in dissipating pain to which we may not become accustomed by either patience or philosophy. " The labor we delight in physics pain."
It is a curious fact that the same word pain has its exact equivalent in so many languages. Thus Greek, novos ; Latin, pena y French, peine ; Italian, pena • Anglo-Saxon and old Ger- man, pin. A pang is a sudden sharp pain. May it not be that the word is derived from the sound uttered with compressed lips partly through the nose. The same word expresses toil, labor, work. Hence, probably Verri's words, Dal dolori Parte attinge le piu nobili ispirazioni." Our highest inspirations come to us t h rough pai n . — Cincinnati Lancet- Clinic.
NEW KEMEDIES.
The introduction of a new therapeutic agent, be it possessed of decided or only feeble medicinal virtues, is generally marked by three distinct epochs, as unvarying as they are instructive.
In reviewing the observations of careful experimenters, one is impressed by the apparently conflicting ideas and conclusions
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based on data to all appearances identical, and it is this fact which, though on superficial observation seems misleading, in reality opens a vista of more careful study, as it enables us to eliminate those sources of error which on critical analysis present themselves.
The first epoch in the " therapeutic life " of a new drug (the term new being restricted to its application in medicine) is gen- erally ushered in by a report of cases in the practice of Dr. A, who learned from the natives of a country, B, that a certain plant possessed remarkable powers to combat disease. The unscientific and necessarily crude data furnished are taken as a basis for observation, and the " remedy " is applied to those dis- eases the removal of which the drug in question has the reputa- tion of effecting.
If, now, a few cases of a given complaint progress favorably under the administration of the " new remedy," the conclusion is at once " jumped at " that a new therapeutic agent of great value has been discovered, vide observations and report of Dr. A, the self-limited nature of many diseases, and their tendency to improve without any " treatment," being entirely overlooked.
If, however, investigation be carried further, and the physi- ological action of the drug be closely studied, it may be be found that its action is potent in the very opposite direction from the one first supposed correct.
The second epoch begins with the more general use of the "new agent" by the profession. Manufacturing chemists are now ready to supply all demands for the newly discovered u specific." Many physicians, led away by the now steadily increasing number of reports regarding " original observations," etc., are induced to likewise prescribe the " new medicine," and they, in their turn, as the sacred fire seizes them, enlighten their still benighted confreres on the properties of the remedy, as obtained in one or perhaps two cases.
These observations, in many instances made by men more zealous than careful, are of very little scientific value when taken singly, but point to stubborn truths when viewed collectively. One is at once impressed by the fact that, under precisely the same conditions and with like surroundings, entirely different results are obtained, even where the observer's accuracy and skill are of the first order.
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The explanation for this is found in the " preparation of the drug employed," and I may say that herein lies the main reason for the many conflicting experiences recorded regarding new remedies. Are we not frequently disappointed in the results obtained from the administration of such widely used drugs as digitalis and ergot? And do we not know by experience that infusion of digitalis made from some leaves is entirely, or almost, inert? Ergot, when employed to arrest hemorrhage, is some- times disappointing, and its want of action can often be directly traced to the inferior quality of the drug employed, or its imper- fect preparation. If this be true of drugs, the use of which, as well as selection and preparation, are so well known, how much more does this hold good in the case of comparatively unknown plants ?
The third epoch commences when order has supplanted chaos, and when reasonable deductions, based on careful observa- tions with reliable preparations, prevail. It is then, and only then, that the drug in question should come into general use and take its place among the many others in the Pharmacopoeia. — Henry Schweig, M.D., in JY. Y. Med. Monthly.
HEADACHES IN DIAGNOSIS.
1. When pain is located between the ears at the occiput, below the lambdoidal suture.
The gastrodigestive apparatus, the automatic centres of life, and the sexual organs will be the seat of disturbance.
2. When pain is located in the region of the parietal bone, from the coronal to the lambdoidal suture, and from the squa- mous suture to the superior outline of the parietal eminence.
The duodenum and small intestines will be the seats of dis- turbance.
3. When pain is located in the forehead, from the coronal suture to the superciliary ridges below, and within the temporal ridges on either side.
The large intestines will be the seat of disturbance.
4. When pain is located below the superciliary ridges includ- ing upper eyelids, to the external angular processes on either side.
The nasal passages and buccal cavity will be the seats of dis- turbance.
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5. When pain is located in the temporal fossa, from the squamous suture to the zygoma below, and from the temporal ridge to the mastoid process.
The brain and its meninges will be the seats of disturbance.
6. When pain is located at the vertex, from the coronal suture and two inches posterior to it in the median line, and two inches on either side of that extent.
In the female, the uterus ; and in the male, the bladder, will be the seat of disturbance. — Dr. C. Bexsox, Baltimore, Md., in Medical World.
A GLOSSARY OF MICROBES.
Mr. W. Hamlet gives the following1 classification of the microbes ( microscopic organisms of fermentation and disease) : 1. Microbes which appear as points are called monads, monera or micrococci. They are motionless, and may be regarded as the spores of other microbes. '2. Motionless linear microbes — the Bacteridians and the bacilli. To them belongs Bacillus anthra- cis. 3. Cylindrical mobile microbes, having rounded ends or contracted in the middle so as to form an 8, are the bacteria proper. Among them is Bacterium termo of putrefaction, the commonest of all. 4. Flexuous mobile microbes. They look and act like eels, and differ but little from the equally active bac- teria. They are the vibrios. 5. Spiral microbes, resembling a cork-screw, and mobile; Spirilla spirochetal Their presence in human blood appears to be connected with intermittent fever. 6. Microbes with -heads, very active, having globules larger and more refractive than the rest of the body at one or both ends. These globules are apparently spores ready to be detached from a bacterium — bacterium capitatum. Besides these six principal states, the microbes form agglomerations or colonies that often notably changed the aspect of the elementary cells, and which have received various names. Agglomerations in microscopic masses, surrounded by a jelly that sticks them together and deprives them of motion, are called zobgloea. A non-gelatinous membrane formed of motionless bacteria is a micoderma. Bac- teria attached end to end in a string form filaments of lejptothrix. A number of spherical micrococci joined one after another form
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the string of round grains called a torula. A considerable num- ber of species may be included in each of these divisions ; and there does not appear at present any way to distinguish by sight a disease-producing bacterium from a harmless one.
ON CHLOEOFOEM-WATEE.
De Beurmann recommends in the Zeitschrift fur Therapie of April 1, 1886, diluted chloroform-water as an antifermentative agent, which is also a local anaesthetic for mucous membranes. It is also useful as a mouth- wash in toothache, and given inter- nally in cardialgia and dilatation of the stomach. In various decomposition processes in the stomach, in vomiting (especially in pregnancy), and as a vehicle for sedative and narcotic reme- dies, chloroform-water is, in Beurmann's estimation, unexcelled. The following are some of his favorite prescriptions in which the chloroform-water is exhibited :
R Aquae chloroformii saturat., fjfvi ;
Aq. aurantii florum, f^ii ;
Aq. dest., f^iv. M. S. — Teaspoonful for a single dose.
R Aq. chloroformii dilut., i$iv ;
Aq. aurant. flor.,
Syr. simpl., aa f^i ;
Morph. hydrochlor., gr. ss ;
Pot. brom., gr. 15. M. S. — Dessertspoonful several times daily.
R Aq. chlorof . dil., f^iv ;
Aq. flor. aur.,
Syr. papaveris, aa f^i ;
Pot. brom., gr. 15. M. S. — Dessertspoonful as a single dose.
R Aq. chlorof. dil., f^iv ;
Aq. menth. pip.,
Syr. simpl., aa f^i;
Sodii salicyl., 3i. M. S. — Tablespoonful as a single dose.
— Pac. Coast Rec. of Med. & Pharm.
A New Hemostatic. — Rothe has ascertained that urtica dioica, the sting- ing nettle, possesses valuable haemostatic properties.
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
70
THE QUESTION OF ADVERTISING A SPECIALTY.
A correspondent writes : " Will you please inform me, as soon as convenient, whether the American Medical Association, at their last meeting, changed the Code of Ethics, so that a specialist can state on his card or sign his specialty."
The American Medical Association has made no change in its Code of Ethics, but the fountain-centres of ethical knowledge connected with the Association in question have declared that physicians may print on their cards the announcement, " Practice limited to whatever specialty the physician does limit him-
This practice, however, is not sanctioned by the profession in general, and fortunately is not widely adopted. It opens the way to a great deal of abuse, and may speedily bring the physi- cian to the level of the ordinary advertising charlatan. — The Med. Record.
Editor Journal : — I wish to say a few words in regard to the proposed new dental law, as published in the Journal last year. I am opposed to any law that forces the student behind our dental colleges for authority to practice. Such a law would destroy the incentive for a collegiate education in dentistry. Students will say it is of no use for us to spend our time and money attending college as there is no honor in it or authority to practice. Then it brings disgrace upon our colleges and lets the profession out to jobbers. It is a virtual acknowledgement that our colleges are of no account, and if they are not, what better can we expect of the Examining Board — the jobbers, before whom we would be summoned to get our authority to practice. Such a law, in my opinion, would disgrace our dental colleges at home and abroad, and lower the standard of the profession to
self to.
" I charge you that this epistle be read."
THE PROPOSED OHIO DENTAL LAW.
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that of a trade, or, in other words, rob it of all professional dig- nity. We see no such uneasiness in the ranks of the regular medical profession as there is in ours in regard to authority to practice. They are content with the authority vested in their colleges. If it is quackery that our honorable leaders in the pro- fesssion are striking at, through the new law, I think there is a better and shorter means of suppressing it than the " new law." It is evident, in our profession, that quacks cannot do a local bus- iness. Then frame a law making it punishable by fine and imprisonment for any man to practice, or pretend to practice dentistry, excepting in an office furnished with chair and other paraphanalia of a dentist. And all who are not graduates to be examined under the present law on that subject. Such a law would stop all the traveling quacks who are humbugging the people. They are the ones that disgrace our profession. I sub- mit these few crude ideas to the profession for what they are worth. I am not a writer nor a leader, but have my opinion of things all the same.
Troy, Ohio. Browx's Block.
TO AVOID SYPHILIS IN TEAXSPLAXTIXG TEETH.
Editor Journal : — There is a strong, and with many dentists, an insuperable objection to transplanting teeth, and that is the danger of com municating syphilis, of which several fatal cases have been reported.
Dr. Youno-er's facile invention of boring- holes in the max- illary bones and inserting natural teeth, avoiding the annoyance of plates and other appliances, adds largely to the inducement to resort to this mode of supplying substitutes for lost teeth. As it has been shown that a tooth may be successfully inserted by this process fifteen months after extraction, why may not teeth unused for an indefinite period, if from subjects well preserved by embalming or otherwise, be judiciously employed for this purpose ?
Since syphilis was unknown among the ancient Egyptians, would it not be well to resort to the mummies for teeth to replant? As syphilis was never found among any uncivilized people, unless introduced by those civilized, perhaps the beautiful teeth of the mound builders, which are obtained at several locali- ties in Ohio, might be safely employed in this operation.
Dow 3d.
OF DENTAL SCIENCE.
81
DENTISTRY A SPECIALTY IN MEDICINE.
Editor Ohio Journal of Dental Science : — The subject which has most agitated the dentists of this city for the past few months, and in fact of a number of the larger cities, is the effort made by prominent men in the dental profession, to have resolu- tions passed, by some of the leading dental societies of this coun- try, declaring dentistry a distinct and independent profession. Dr. N. W. Kingsley seems to have been the leading spirit in this movement, and on November 19, 1886, a special meeting was held by the First District Dental Society of the State of New York, for the purpose of listening to Dr. Kingsley's carefully pre- pared paper entitled Dentistry not a Specialty of Medicine. Im- mediately after the reading of the paper and its endorsement by a few of the authors's friends, a set of resolutions was offered for the consideration of the society, declaring in substance that den- tistry in America is practically an independent profession not subordinate to any other, and that in the interests of dentistry as an independent profession, steps be taken looking to the forma- tion of an International Dental Congress at an early date.
Notwithstanding the very skillful manner in which the mat- ter was prearranged and conducted by those who were so anxious to push the resolutions through, they were passed over from one meeting to another, and finally failed to be endorsed by this rep- resentative body, which stands first in all the world as a dental society, noted for its thoughtful and learned men and its good works. The report in the December Independent Practitioner that the society had endorsed the resolutions was unauthorized and not true. I understand the resolutions were passed by a society in Chicago, the result in my estimation of too much haste and not enough sober thought and temperate discussion. The object of these resolutions is apparently to sever all relationship between dentistry and medicine and establish the former as a dis- tinct profession, and also to prevent the formation of a dental section in the forthcoming International Medical Congress to be held in Washington next September.
The question whether dentistry is, or is not a specialty of medicine is not entirely new to us, for it has been discussed from
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time to time by the profession without determining the relative status of dental surgery. It ought to be more thoroughly agitat- ed, earnestly and deliberately, by all the dental journals and den- tal societies of this country, and thereby enlighten and qualify every dentist for an unprejudiced decision on the subject, and thus settle the matter forever, of the relationship to the mother profession.
However I must emphatically take exception to the idea that dentistry is not a specialty of medicine. I cannot compre- hend how any dentist who has the education and thorough knowledge of his specialty, and particularly those who have had considerable experience and are familiar with the details and requirements of a dental practice, and those who realize the vast amount of physical suffering relieved by the services of a dentist, as the result of a medical and special education can claim, in view of these facts that dental surgery is outside the pale of medical