give to the profession a monthly journal of twenty-four pages for the pittance of fifty cents a year. After mature deliberation the publisher has decided that he cannot see how he can afford it either, and has concluded that hereafter the price of the DENTAL PRACTITIONER shall be $1.00 per annum, a figure more nearly in proportion to its value and one which we believe its subscribers will agree is not too much for what they receive in return.

Accompanying the present number will be a subscription blank, prepared in accordance with the above statement, which we trust our friends will fill up and return with their usual promptness.

Remember that our pages are always open for the presentation of any subject pertinent to the practice of our profession, and we cordially invite communications from any of our readers whenever they feel they can give some brother more “light.”

Thanking those who have contributed to our pages in the past, and trusting we may merit a continuation of their interest and support, we wish for the DENTAL PRACTITIONER and all its readers that degree of prosperity which their efforts may deserve.

College Diplomas vs. State Board Certificates.

For many years the question of Dental Education has been an interesting and ever recurring subject for discussion by the members of the profession. Much has been said and much has been written, -much very wisely said and written, but the curious fact to us is that, with all the produced broadening and conservativism, that the excrescence-State Boards of Examiners-should have been permitted to develop and flourish. If an educated dentist is the professional demand, truly they ought not to be manufactured. It seems a shame that the time, thought and money that has been expended by the worthy pioneer fathers in dentistry, and their successors, to build up a system of education that should best provide and equip competent practitioners for the community, should be so little appreciated that the effort is now even menaced by the existence of another legal avenue of entrance. If the standard of education taught in our dental colleges is right and necessary to enable one to competently practice dentistry, and we believe it is, then any other way by which persons can enter the ranks of the profession is unjust and wrong, and should be promptly closed. The State Boards seem to be a radical and serious fault in our

constitution, as the purpose for which they were created ought by this time to have ceased to exist-to enable those of many years practice to come within the pale of a law created during their time. of active service, without suffering the inconvenience of attendance at college. So long as we tolerate this loop-hole now, we say to the world at large, for they have the right to infer the fact, that dentistry is so narrow and unimportant that the whole subject can be mastered without much study. The powers of the doctorate reach every man's home and every man's hearth, and should not be conferred too lightly or with too willing hands. They are of grave import and the responsibility great. The trust should be too sacred to be committed to other than those who are regular graduates in dentistry. Any one who has an earnest desire to practice, and who approaches the profession with the proper feelings and motives, needs, in order to attain his true desire, the benefits which flow from collegiate training, and which cannot be obtained elsewhere. The provision made in the powers vested in State Boards is an inducement to many, who can do nothing for the relief of suffering in itself, and who therefore can never become moulded into the type of true professionals, to seek to enter the ranks of dentistry because the road thus offered is comparatively easy and the sordid financial gain supposed to be large. We do not doubt that some good men are now truly and faithfully laboring in the profession who came by way of the Boards, but we feel also that they would be much better able to serve their clientèle if they had received the training incident to courses at a dental college. A true and even standard can never be given to dentistry until every practitioner makes an even start in a well-grounded training at a dental college. The profession needs to protect itself, for public confidence and respect is never lavished upon any except those who carefully guard the interests of the public in the things committed to their care, and certainly a Faculty has a better opportunity to learn the character and motives of those whom it admits than is possible for the members of a State Board to gain in the short appearance before them of applicants to practice. We would like to see speedy measures taken by the profession to close this rear entrance and force those who want to be dentists to face the masters, and come in at the front, and what should be the only door-the college.

L. A. F.

DENTAL SOCIETIES.

FIRST DISTRICT DENTAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

This society is to be congratulated upon the magnificent success of its seventeenth anniversary meeting, which was held on the afternoon and evening of Dec. 9th, 1885. So also are those members of the profession whose good fortune it was to be present on that memorable occasion.

Besides a very full attendance of its own members, there were present a large number of representative men from all sections of the country.

Dr. J. L. Williams, of Philadelphia, presented an able paper on "The Development and Minute Anatomy of the Dental Tissues in Health and Disease," which was discussed by Drs. Abbot, Heitzmann, Bodecker and Atkinson, of New York; Dr. Andrews, of Cambridge, Mass.; Dr. Black, of Jacksonville, Ill.; and Drs. Peirce and Sudduth, of Philadelphia. It is not our purpose to make any extended report of the discussion, which will no doubt be published through other channels.

In the papers and discussions the point or points at issue seemed to centre upon two histological conditions and a pathological one which the gentlemen from New York though they had observed, and which the gentlemen from Philadelphia, with Drs. Black and Andrews were equally positive they had not been able to discover. The former gentlemen were confident that they had seen throughout normal enamel and dentine structure a reticulum or net-work of organic matter, which not only formed a basis for the deposition of the salts of lime, but held these tissues in close connection with the arterial and nervous systems; and in addition to this, in the progressive hardening of these structures the ameloblasts and the odontoblasts of the dentine germ were themselves calcified. They also held that in the retrograde metamorphic action which resulted in dental caries there were easily discoverable these same ameloblasts and odontoblasts giving up their lime salts and returning to their original or embryonal condition. On the other hand it was held and ably maintained by the other participants in the discussion that the enamel was in the nature of a secretion from the ameloblasts, and when completed it was devoid of organic material, holding the position largely as a coat of mail,

And in the dentine the prolongation from the odontoblasts gave origin to the dentine fibrils or tubules, while these cells themselves were not calcified, and in the decalcification of the enamel it was not possible to detect the slightest trace of organic matter, and in the organic matter remaining from decalcification of dentine the odontoblasts or embryonal cells were not observable.

The subject was treated at such length by the gentlemen above mentioned that several others whose names appeared on the programme had no opportunity to speak.

Too mnch cannot be said in praise of the excellent slides exhibited by means of the gas microscope which so beautifully illustrated the development and structure of the dental tissues.

However much one may differ with the New Yorkers upon the subject discussed at this meeting, there can be no doubt about their generous hospitality or the warmth of the fraternal welcome which was extended to their visiting brethren.

The Metric System.

Dr. Llewellyn Elliott publishes the following valuable rules in the Med. Record:

I. To convert troy grains or minims into grammes or cubic centimetres Divide the number by 10, and from the quotient subtract one-third.

2.

To convert apothecaries' or fluidrachms into grammes or cubic centimetres: Multiply the number by 4.

3. To convert troy or fluid ounces into grammes or centimetres: Multiply the number by 32.

4. To convert grammes or cubic centimetres into troy grains or minims: Add fifty per cent., or one-half the number, and then multiply by 10.

5. To convert grammes or cubic centimetres into apothecaries' or fluidrachms: Divide by 4.

6.

To convert grammes or cubic centimetres into troy or fluid ounces Divide by 32.

7.

8.

To convert inches into metres: Divide by 40.

To convert metres into inches: Add ten per cent. or one

tenth the number, and then multiply by 36.

BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

DENTAL MEDICINE: A Manual of Dental Materia Medica and Therapeutics for Practitioners and Students. By FERDINAND J. S. GORGAS, A. M., M. D., D. D. S. Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston Son & Co., 1885. Price, $3.25.

The author of this work having already given to the profession of Dentistry "Harris' Principles and Practice of Dentistry," and 'Harris' Dictionary of Medical Terminology and Dental Surgery,” now, by its production, closes an important gap in all dental libraries.

The want has long been felt, by not a few, of a work which shall deal with the medicines used in dentistry, and of use to the dentist from a purely dental standpoint; and yet be sufficiently comprehensive in its construction to embrace enough general, practical information to enable a practitioner to use his drugs with confidence and power.

We believe that the work of Dr. Gorgas, as it comes to us in this second edition, very largely accomplishes this object, and feel that no dentist or dental student can afford to be without one.

Among the additions to the first edition which render this second one of special value are, a chapter on Inflammation, with special reference to the Mucous Membrane of the mouth; a Synopsis of the Treatment, with additions, of Affections of the Oral Cavity; the results of recent investigations into the properties of Anæsthetic Agents; the Methods of prominent practitioners for the employment of medicinal agents in the treatment of diseases for which such agents are specially applicable. Pages are also devoted to information on Cocaine. Peroxide of Hydrogen, Iodide of Zinc, Chlorides of certain metals, Boracic and other acids, Duquesnel's Aconitine, Papain, Resorcin, Syrup of Lacto-1 hosphate of Lime, Eugenol, Jamaica Dogwood, Glyceroborates of Calcium and Sodium, etc.

The volume contains over 450 pages and is printed and bound in the usual and well known good style of the publishers.