much precious time to the making of zinc dies, a method that is perplexing, slow, and uncertain in results, and which should, long ago, have become obsolete. We are told, by its advocates, that the shrinkage of zinc is n cessary! If the plaster cast represents the mouth, and I hold that it does, why not fit the plate to that? This the Babbitt metal die will always do, and I find, as a matter of course, the plate fits the mouth, and secures to me the most satisfactory results in what is considered the most difficult class of work, viz: the heavy, continuous gum work.

In swaging plates, use what is known as lower bending pliers for both upper and lower plates, and also the wood and horn mallets. Neither of these tools do any harm to the metal, and greatly aid in the process.

Oil both dies, and if careful to wipe off any base metal that may adhere, and which can readily be seen, there will be no need of putting the plate in acid before annealing, as some teach, but do so after annealing, so as to see what may be on the surface after swaging.

Don't hesitate to cut your full upper plate in front and lap it, for while it saves time and annoyance, it also increases the strength of the plate at the point where there is the most strain, and if the teeth are to be soldered on, there is far less danger of the plate warping than if it had benn cramped into an unnatural condition by swaging without cutting.

Learn to use the mouth blow-pipe, even if you should afterward make use of a self-acting one. A blow-pipe should have a large mouth-piece, so as to rest it against the lips and not between them. In order to blow a steady blast, do not let your "wind-bag" collapse, in other words, keep the diaphragm distended all the time, then you can keep up a steady blast with the cheeks, taking in your supply through the nose.

The practice of soldering and finishing the backings before soldering to the plate, is all very well for those who have the time thus to putter. But time is saved and just as good work the result, by a simpler method. Invest plate and teeth in plaster and sand (which is preferable to asbestos, because it is not so yielding in backing up) and in a sheet-iron ring; use thick gold, say about guage 24; round the top of each backing and chamfer the edge; split the pins and cut off the surplus with a sharp tool; have the plate clean, and the easiest way to do it is to wash off the wax by dashing on boiling water; use plenty of borax; I prefer the pulverized, wetting it up on slate or glass, putting it on with a stick or brush; cut the solder small and put it where you wish it to remain. I use 20 carat gold and 20 carat solder; if your solder is what it ought to be it will flow like water, and leave a smooth surface, needing only to burr off the heads of pins. Polish with pumice on a pine stick in the lathe, and brush, and oil. Soft brushes, small sizes, will do the most effectual work, as they hold the pumice, while the stiff ones throw it off.-Ohio State Journal of Dental Science.

-KAIRIN.-A new alkaloid, called "kairin," is about to appear in the drugmarket, for which are claimed antipyretic properties, unaccompanied by the slightest tendency to produce local irritation. It is proposed as a substitute for chinoline, itself a substitute for quinine. Drs. Fischer and Wilhelm König, of Munch University, assisted by Professor Filehne, of Erlangen, have found that those hydrides of chinoline, in which the nitrogen atom is in direct combination with the carbon atom of a methyl group or of another alcohol radical, all possess more or less the properties above mentioned as pertaining to kairin.

Kairin is the name given by the authors to oxychinoline-methyl-hydride.

Kairin hydrochlorate forms a light grayish-yellow crystalline powder. It is soluble in water, and has a bitter, aromatic taste.

The authors have found that, beginning with doses of from 0.3-0.5 to 1.0 gm. of the above salt, and gradually increasing the dose 0 5 gm. each time, the doses being repeated at intervals of an hour, after the fourth dose the bodytemperature may be reduced to 37° C., or even 36.5° C., without any symptoms of local irritation; and they hope that the substance will prove useful in all forms of fever.-The Druggists' Journal.

-THE ETHER SPRAY AN IMMEDIATE CURE FOR NEURALGIA.-Dr. McColganan extols the value of the ether or rhigolene spray for the instantaneous relief principally of facial neuralgia. He first had occasion to observe its good effects upon his own person, he having suffered greatly from facial neuralgia. Since curing himself, he has had occasion to test its efficacy in about twenty cases. sult was invariably a most gratifying In many instances a permanent cure was established. He attempts to explain its action by supposing a plete change to take place in the nutrition of the affected nerve in consequence of the intense cold acting as a revulsive. - Medical Times.

success.

The re

com

-TO PREVENT RUST.-It is said that the best plan to prevent tools from rusting is the simple prepration employed by Prof. Olmstead, of Yale College. It is made by the slow melting togather of six or eight parts of lard to one of rosin, stirring till cold. This remains semifluid, ready for use, the rosin preventing rancidity and supplying an air-tight filan. Rubbed on a bright surface ever so thinly, it protects and preserves the pollish effectually and it can be wiped off nearly if ever desired, as from a knife blade; or

-To BEND GLASS TUBES.-A thin

glass tube of the size of the finger is difficult to bend without its being flattened at the place it is to be bent. It has been suggested that this may be overcome by filling the tube with sand, and then heating the tube with the sand in it, when it will bend without wrinkles or without flattening. The tube should be held at a tangent over the blaze of a spirit lamp and not across, and when heated enough may be bent as desired, either by its own weight, or with the assistance of the other hand. Journal of Education.

-M. POTEL has recently submitted to the French Society of Encouragement a new substance, which he has named, after himself, "poteline," and which appears to be susceptible of numerous applications. It is a mixture of gelatine, glycerine, and tannin, and is, according to the inventor, absolutely impermeable to the air. When warmed, it becomes liquid, or nearly so, and takes all the contours of an object. M. Potel has made corks of it, whien form an economical substitute for metallic capsules, and secure an hermetic closing. He has used it as a coating to preserve meat. At a temperature of 112°, it envelops the meat, kills the germs of putrefaction, and prevents any new germ passing in. According to M. Potel, meat thus treated will retain all its freshness for two months.-Popular Science Monthly.

-CEMENT for objects which have to be heated Iron fillings, 100 parts; clay, 50; common salt, 10: quartz sand, 20.

Published by GIDEON SIBLEY.

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Edited by

ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATES OF THE PHILADELPHIA DENTAL COLLEGE,

FEBRUARY 28, 1883.

elevated and benefitted itself, by the economic principles resulting from the application of the safest and surest methods of

PROF. OF PHYSIOLOGY.

GENTLEMEN : — The familiar words, course and curriculum, so commonly employed in relation to colleges and studies, are derived the first from the general term for the places at which the Romans held their contests for both physical and mental superiority, and the last from the light chariots used at their races. These words remind us of the interesting and instructive work of Dean Dr. Alford, entitled "The Queen's English," wherein to show the importance of language to the people at large, he very aptly likens it to a highway over which the interchange of information and thought, is rendered capable of being effected with more or less facility, according to the perfection of adaptation of the road and the vehicles that are used in the traffic.

It cannot be gainsaid that everything which invites to the acquisition of skill in, or tends to facilitate the pursuit of, knowledge, in like manner may be regarded as of grave consequence to the world, and is directly of value to all men in proportion as they are benefitted by the diffusion of carefully collated intelligence and the cultivation of the means of its application to meet their own necessities.

Where the

art of healing has been most successfully cherished and advanced to the highest condition, the community has ever been most

members, and thus reducing to a minimum those serious and painful interruptions caused by disease. In addition to the teachings of the higher motives of humanity, political economy shows that nations. must foster every means of imparting the true science and art of medicine. Hence every form of government has from the earliest period of history given attention to the establishment and the enhancement of such learning.

For this reason the Egyptians, at the supreme height of their greatest development, recognized the necessity for a division of the then already enormous work under different heads, that it might be more effectually performed. Yea, farther, they practically taught the indispensability of the specialities of the healing art, among which dentistry bore a highly important part even at this very remote period. The example of this ancient people has been followed until a nation's rank may be most readily gauged by observing and comparing the attention paid to the completeness of its means of instruction in the various divisions of this science and art, under the protection of which man develops and maintains that most exalted perfection of mens sana in corpora sano.

It is an axiom that the foundation of the vigor of the body, rests upon the capability of the digestive apparatus to assimilate food. The initiatory and important

processes of this function take place in the mouth. To preside over and care for the management of this portion of the system, is now the duty of the oral physician and surgeon, who from the fact that he holds the key of the propylæum to this labyrinthian laboratory, is peculiarly fitted for and continually assigned to and invested with the responsibility of the charge of that whole apparatus. From constant observation of the mouth the dentist is made familiar and intimate with the sympathetic effects shown therein, as results of the numerous and varying stages of the disturbance of digestion. Therefore any attempt to teach or practise our specialty, would be lamentably lame without the physiological study of nutrition both in the ultimate cells, as well as in their associations as organs. Indeed, it is only in this way that one can be prepared for the understanding of the multiple processes involved in this function of the economy. With a keen appreciation and lively recog nition of the demands made by the highest civilization, our advanced practitioners have devoted much attention to this study. The pleasant duty devolves upon me to bear testimony to the unusual proficiency attained by this evening's class of candidates for the world's acceptance as doctors of dental surgery. Likewise I can further speak for my colleagues of this faculty, that we take great pride in the fruits of our united labors as shown by your accomplished and deserved acquirements. Probably nothing has more generously contributed to this fortunate condition, than the preparatory reading that so many of you have availed yourselves of in commencing your connection with this school. This has been largely due to the pursuit of a course of home study under the guidance of a carefully selected series of questions, with which you have been furnished by the Dean, to whom belongs the credit of suggesting and perfecting the preliminary course.

Results have proven

this to be a greater incentive to intelligent study, than even its most earnest advocates had anticipated. had anticipated. So great has been the approval of those who are actuated by a desire for more light that, our list of matriculates to-day exceeds the most sanguine expectations of the friends of the college, and it now becomes obliged to seek larger apartments and increased size of the accommodations for its coming classes of students.

This success is an evidence that among those about to enter our profession there is an appreciation that in addition to the highest manipulative skill something still higher is now demanded of the practitioner of dental surgery. To be able to make good fillings, or perfect-fitting artificial dentures, is quite essential to success, but above and beyond all this comes the need of that knowledge which can best guide and care for the general functions of the body, so as to secure health, the greatest of physical blessings.

The future opens to you a field of usefulness and responsibility that will require the most the most careful and conscientious study of the functions of each one of your patients, and in proportion as your judgment becomes more and more correct, you will be more useful to those whom it may be your duty to assist. Connected with this there is a certain necessity for manual dexterity, that in no way belittles or lessens the importance of your life-work. On the contrary it demands one of the most rare combinations of both mechanical skill and scientific judgment. The practice of medicine compels its devotee to put forth a large amount of physical exercise in passing from one to another of the bed-ridden patients, who implore his scientific aid, and yet this in no way detracts from the dignity of that practice.

Advance is the watchword of profession, and amid the jealousies of those of that numerous class who are ever ready to frown upon any step for improvement,

the majority of our practitioners have ever pursued an upward and onward course towards that elevation which sooner or later many must reach. In the growth of a tree we may picture the lesson which history teaches. Surrounded by other professions; proud in their position and height, it was forced to live under the shade of those who would stifle and hide it from the sunlight. As it has pushed out branches often they have been pruned away, but this only threw more vigor into the main stem and rendered the wood more compact and solid, thus it became better able to sustain its top. When the winds that sweep the forest are felt by this ambitious one, whose destiny is upon a plane with them all, it will survive the gale.

Called into existence by the growing neglect to attend to the nutrition of the body, in the hot haste of the race for position and power, the dental surgeon has long witnessed his chosen profession lifted in importance and increasing the need for his every attention. Consumption and other diseases, that baffle the skill of the physicians, have perversion of nutrition as the point of attack from which they work their disastrous ruin upon mankind. Observation has discovered and sickness has demonstrated that many of the most serious diseases have their incipiency markedly disclosed by the conditions of the teeth and the oral cavity generally. Practice has repeatedly proven that the cure of those dental diseases that encourage and foster the abnormal discharge of function, assists in breaking up that perversion. To effect the cure most completely, involves the correction of bad habits and the substitution of healthy foods and methods for pernicious ones. Upon all sides we hear the questions, "How shall I eat, and what shall I eat?" In this land of abundance they are more important, than that universal one of "where shall I get bread?" The surviThe survival of the fittest now depends upon the

In

proper selection of suitable nutrition from among the many varieties that almost intrude themselves upon our notice. this country, more suffer from super-abundance, than from famine. It may truly be said that this is a poor man's paradise; for, here with moderate industry he can provide his family with the substantial needs of life, and here we see the result in the rising of the sons of toilers to our highest positions of power, wealth and success. Upon the other hand the extravagances and luxuries of the rich, most rapidly debase those who indulge in them. The infirmities that the parents hand down with their fortunes, do most hasten degeneration of the on-coming children. The natural laws of selection, are ever at work to level up the masses, rather than tear down the few, excepting those who are blinded by appetite and select to lay the axe of disease to their own bodies.

While you are laboring and fighting in the fields of life, remember that you are smoothing the way and erecting a series of landmarks as guides, that others may profit by your example.

To properly and creditably advance the standard both of your private lives and the profession of your choice, imposes upon you a duty which you may expect the discharge of, will require the encountering and overthrow of many obstacles. Not least among the labors will be the overcoming of the inertia of the fossilized minds, who like cold earthen clods will dispirit you more by their indifference than they will by active opposition. The future of the dental profession is already determined; from the one trunk has sprung two branches; in one, which probably will be the larger, the purely mechanical skill will be cultivated most assiduously. The other will be more select and honorable, and will require a very scientific understanding of the laws governing nutrition. To be practical it will exact the wisest of judgment concern