allow time for the gases to be driven off, then turn the flame a little higher; when the mercury reaches 340° hold it there for another thirty minutes then cool off in water. In pieces of irregular thickness or where it may be a quarter of an inch in some places the first heat should be prolonged to forty-five minutes or even one hour in some cases. The last heat should never be longer than a half-hour. If the temperature is allowed to be too high or too low five or six times during the process, a poor plate is the result. I prefer the light red rubbers for general use, having less caoutchouc to the pound than others; they allow the gases to pass out freely during the process of vulcanizing, which if properly done, makes an odorless plate; if the plate emits an odor of sulphurous gas, when the file passes over it, it had better be enclosed in fresh plaster and give it twenty equal parts—too much nitric dissolves the rubber. I long ago abandoned steel burrs and the worse than useless sand-paper for finishing plates, and now use a coarse file on the outside and edges, with coarse corundum wheel for the lingual surface; a skilful use of the wheel is more effectual than any amount of work with the clumsy contrivances called scrapers for sale at the depots. With a wheel an inch in diameter, a quarter inch thick, any desirable shape can be given to the lingual surface; curves can be formed around the ends - depressions, to make more room for the tongue, and undulations in the surface, not only useful but artistic. The marks of the wheel can be removed with powdered pumice, water and a pine stick; the piece of pine half-inch wide and quarter inch thick, long enough to form a handle. Every mark and scratch should minutes more heat at 340°. Another be entirely removed before the polishing good rule is to let the plaster have at least twelve hours to set hard and firm. The process I have adopted, when time permits, is, after the teeth are waxed and fastened to the cast, place it in water to soak; after mixing sufficient plaster, take some on a camel's hair pencil and fill in all of the joints and between the teeth inside and out, then enclose in flask in the usual way; after the plaster has become hard enough, plunge in hot water to soften the wax, seperate and wash out the wax with boiling water; after a few minutes mix a little plaster on the palm of the hand, and with a narrow piece of brass, flatened very thin at the end, put a small portion in the joints, inside, to keep out the rubber; set the flasks aside for twelve hours to harden, before packing. Covering the cast with tin-foil, is an excellent plan; it leaves a better surface on the rubber than any other covering I have tried, the tin can be removed with a mixture of nitric and muriatic acids commences. Never use oil, emery or rotten-stone on any plate, either rubber or metal, as it is almost impossible to remove it from the joints of the teeth. The felt wheel is next in order-with pumice and water—and produces a beautiful surface. The felt wheel has the bad quality of loosing its shape and mashing down. This can be corrected by giving it a coat of shellac on each side, done by dropping some melted shellac on the felt, then passing a hot knife blade over it, the heat causing the felt to absorb the gun-the wheel will now wear down to the hub, without getting thicker. The polishing is done with a brush-wheel, prepared chalk and water, and will only take a few minutes; towards the last the brush should be nearly or quite dry-run with considerable speed and lightly touched, this leaves a polish excelling any other method I have ever used; the piece should be washed with soap and clean water, rinsed and wiped with a clean towel, and lastly rubbed with dry cloth. W. R. HALL. WE have received a lengthy and interesting account of the commencement exercises held in connection with the various departments of the State University of Iowa. The dental department was established in 1882, and at its first commencement, March 7th, 1883, the diploma of the institution was awarded to eight graduates. The Iowa State Dental Society holds its next meeting at Iowa City on the first Tuesday in May. The first regular meeting of the Iowa State Board of Dental Examiners will be held at the same place on Monday, April 30th, 1883. DR. THOMAS FILLEBROWN, of Portland, Me., has been appointed Professor of Operative Dentistry, in the Harvard Dental College. We congratulate our old-time friend upon his preferment, and the institution with which he is connected, upon its good fortune in securing such an able, progressive, and energetic member of the profession to occupy the chair made vacant by the resignation of Dr. Shepard. Through his active work in the societies, and his writings, Prof. Fillebrown has become well known to the dental profession, in which he has hosts of friends who heartily wish him success in his new field of labor. THE next annual meeting of the Texas Dental Association will be held in Dallas, commencing the first Tuesday in May, frequently been our experience in the 1883, and continuing for three days. All dentists in good standing are cordially invited. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, DEPARTMENT OF DENTISTRY.-At a public commencement held Friday, April 13, 1883, at the American Academy of Music, Philadelphia, the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery was conferred by William Pepper, M.D., Provost, upon thirty-four graduates. A PLEA FOR THE CHILDREN.-It has treatment of children's teeth, that more harm than good has been accomplished by the attempted thoroughness of the operations performed upon them; especially has this been the case with those timid and nervous little patients who, unfortunately, are the ones most frequently requiring the services of a dentist. While permanency should be the first consideration in the treatment of adult teeth, particularly where the individual is ordinarily strong and healthy, imme diate relief and present comfort are of primary importance in the case of such children as we are considering. We have no doubt that many permanent teeth have been lost through a fear of the dentist, which has been inspired by a too vigorous handling of the deciduous teeth, giving the child such a dread of dental operations that it has been difficult, if not impossible, to have the teeth inspected as often as they should be, thus allowing some of them to decay to such an extent that filling would be useless. Quite likely the child has heard some older person give such a graphic description of the tortures he has been subjected to in the dental chair (and as a general thing, such pictures are fully as vivid as the facts will warrant) that he looks upon the dentist as little less than a fiend incarnate. Parents perceiving this feeling of dread and listening to the pleadings of their children, neglect to have their teeth attended to until they are forced to do so to gain them relief from suffering; and then they are dragged along with their little minds filled with forebodings that can be better imagined than described. We all know how tenaciously impressions formed in childhood remain fixed in the mind, and an experience in the dental chair is no exception. applications that may be necessary with more accuracy and satisfaction. Lift out carefully any debris or disintegrated tooth structure that can be removed without pain. If any semi-decomposed dentine remain, the removal of which is painful, saturate with carbolic acid, and after carefully drying out the cavity, fill with oxyphosphate or such other plastic material as seems best adapted to the case in hand. We have derived more satisfaction from the use of oxyphospate of zinc where we have been unable to make a thorough excavation, than from either amalgam or guttapercha, especially where the tooth has been kept dry from the commencement of the operation until a few moments after its completion. Even if the tooth requires refilling occasionally, there is much greater likelihood of keeping it until nature removes it to make room for a succeeding tooth by coaxing it along in this manner without pain or serious annoyance to the child, than if we were to thoroughly excavate, no matter how great the pain, and fill with tin foil, as some recommend. And also with the permanent teeth we think it is the exception where gold fillings have been inserted before the twelfth year, that they are perfectly satisfactory; and experience has taught us that it is far better in the majority of cases, to fill these teeth with some plastic material until they have acquired sufficient density, and the patient sufficient endurance to warrant the employment of gold. It behooves us, therefore, to remove so far as possible, the disagreeable features from our operations, and send our little patients away feeling, to say the least, we are not the worst people in the world. How fortunate, when they come to us "with fear and trembling" and full DR. PRIME says that dyspepsia is a of apprehension, if we can happily disap-great foe to grace. It darkens the sky point them, relieve their pain, and make them comfortable and happy. The plan we pursue in these cases is somewhat as follows: Apply the rubber dam if possible before attempting to excavate-absolute dryness is of quite as much importance as thorough prepararation, and also enables us to make any and breaks the hopes of many Christians. They think the trouble is in their hearts when it is in their stomachs. THERE is no better use to make of finecut tobacco, than to bind it upon a fresh wound, and nothing will stop the flow of blood quicker. SOME FACTS FOR THE DENTAL OPERA- BY L. G. NOEL, M.D., D.D.S., NASHVILLE. An intelligent body, like that I have the honor to address, will thank me to leave off the usual preliminary remarks, and plunge at once into my subject. "More operations fail from want of judgment on the part of the operator, than from lack of skill.” We quote our own language. How often has the truth of this been forcibly presented to us when examining the teeth of patients who have "always been to the best dentists," and we find a mouthful of gleaming cohesive fillings nearly every one of which has to be done over on account of recurrence of decay. Perhaps the mortification is rendered doubly acute because the patient has always been our own, and we have to shoulder all the blame ourselves. views. (We enjoyed the privilege of being under Dr. Smith's faithful tutelage while at the Philadelphia Dental College.) "After the eruption of the twelfth year molars, we look for decay upon the proximal faces of the teeth, more or less prompt in action, in proportion to the character of the tooth material and the process of nutritient consolidation then taking place. From the great number of mouths I see with the bicuspids (superior especially) missing, I judge that the experience of others accord with my own that these teeth when developed of soft or medium grades of tooth-structure, are exceedingly unsatisfactory, and their preservation uncertain by the old and established methods of filling. Gold, of whatever kind or by whomsoever introduced, will fail in them sooner or later. Unless used by thoroughly competent and experienced hands, its duration of usefulness will scarcely average more than eighteen months, and by the time such bicuspids have been filled mesially and distally twice, the crowns are generally so weakened as to be of little further real service. These soft teeth are commonly markedly constricted at the cervical portion, inviting decay and re-decay by their shape as well as by their faulty structure. Amal Oh! How small we feel when the patient says, “Dr., I think I'd better have an artificial set." No matter whose patient it has been, it is not an enthusiastic undertaking to set about refilling those teeth after a reluctant assent has been yielded to your advice to "try it again." In such cases we generally find the grind-gam I have found quite as uncertain and ing surface fillings have done pretty well, and that the proximate fillings are doing so well at the grinding surface, as to nearly deceive the operator with their specious brightness, but a close examination about the gums with a small excavator, tells the melancholy story of recurring decay. In the last number of the Dental Cosmos we read a paper from the pen of Prof. D. D. Smith, in which he brought these facts before the Massachusetts Dental Society, and suggested some methods. we shall quote, as we shall have to dissent somewhat from our beloved teacher's *Read before the Tennessee Dental Associa tion. even more unsatisfactory than gold for them; uncertain, in that decay is quite as frequently re-established around the filling, and unsatisfactory, in that amalgam imparts to this class of soft teeth a dark blue color, which is unsightly in the mouth. Tin is objectionable for the same reason. Oxychlorides disintegrate and wash out at the cervical portion, leaving the cavity unprotected at the most critical point. Oxyphosphates promise better than the oxychlorides, but their value is not established.* Guttapercha is the best * (By no means; and they have, in the hands of the writer, proved most inimical to the life of the pulp.) preserver of such cavities at the cervical margin that we know, but it will scarcely endure the wear of mastication for weeks." We italicise here, because we shall again refer to this strong admission to establish the superiority of a practice we have tried, and think better than that Dr. Smith is about to suggest. "What then shall we do to preserve these teeth when thus decayed? In July, 1878, it was my privilege to read an article before the Pennsylvania State Society on "Gold and Tin in Conjunction as a Filling Material," in which I advocated the use of tin foil along the cervical wall and at the cervico-palatal and cervicobuccal angles of the cavity, packing it to about the thickness of No. 24 plate, and then completing the filling with gold. This was after the promulgation by Dr. Palmer of the theory of galvanic action between fillings and tooth-structure, and after repeated trials in the mouth had shown me its value over gold alone. Some of the most successful of all my efforts to combine filling materials, or in the use of any materials for the preservation of soft teeth, have been in the use of tin and gold in this manner. To its use in this way, there are two serious objections: First, it imparts to the cervical portion of the tooth the color and appearance of decay, so much so, that in two or three instances I have been seduced into the removal of the fillings without, however, finding any necessity for it. The second, and perhaps more important objection is, that its use requires the same conditions of dryness, shape of cavity, and delicate manipulation, the same pain and inconvenience to the patient, and the same mental and physical strain upon the operator, as does the introduction of gold alone." The doctor next passes on to describe a combination of gold and amalgam (we regret we cannot quote him literally, but trust all present have read his article), the latter material being used in this class of cavities just as the tin was employed at the cervical margin, and claims for it, superiority over the former method. "First, it has shown itself the equal of gold and tin as a preserver." How does that statement chime with his statement quoted above(?)-That he had "found amalgam" quite as uncertain, and even more unsatisfactory than gold for them; "uncertain, in that decay is quite as frequently re-established around the filling, and unsatisfactory, in that the amalgam imparts to this class of teeth a dark blue color, unsightly in the mouth. Does its combination with gold render it more preservative of dentine and less liable to oxidation ? oxidation?" Second, he says it is much. easier of adaptation." Third, it can 66 66 be used with little or no pain to the patient.” Fourth, the filling is much more readily introduced and finished." "Fifth, it does not give the discoloration. of decay at the cervical portion." One unacquainted with Prof. Smith and his methods of work, would think him a slovenly and indolent operator, after reading of this amalgam and gold combination, especially from the stress he lays upon its labor-saving advantages. But the writer knows too well his tireless diligence, his uncompromising thoroughness, to fall into such a mistake. He believes Dr. Smith to be entirely honest in his advocacy of this method. We think we can propose a better method for this class of cavities mentioned in Prof. Smith's paper. A method we think best for all deep approximate decays so nearly exposing the pulp, as to render it unsafe to fill the entire cavity with metal, on account of its conductivity of heat. method peculiarly adapted to those cavities extending beneath the gums on the neck. of the teeth. In the November number of the Ohio State Journal, 1882, we called attention to our practice of filling the cer A |