graduated at the same college from which he (the y. g.) received his diploma, and that he declined a professorship in the same college, a few years back, about the same time the young graduate was weaned. Inflammatory rheumatism is a picnic, with a cheque for $100 thrown in, in comparison with the young graduate's vexation and chagrin, as he sat and witnessed Dr. H. holding his audience spellbound, while he discoursed about leptothrix and amœbæ, and pyrorrhoea alveolaris. And when he in turn got up to enlighten the members as to his method of manipulating No. 60 foil, to have them yawn and look tired, and, perhaps, have three or four committees come in and interrupt him with their reports ! The young graduate went home in high dudgeon, but he had learned a valuable lesson; the first one of a special course of instruction which ought to supplement the regular course of study in all our dental colleges.

But we were talking about your getting settled. You are probably in a strange community. You expect to take the place by storm, because Dr. H., whatever he may be in the dental convention, is certainly an old fogy at home. Somehow or other you don't find as much new work to be done as you hoped for, but you manage to keep fairly busy, digging Dr. H.'s gutta-percha fillings out of buccal cavitives, and refilling with gold. It is usually pretty difficult to get the dam down below the margin of these cavities, and much moral persuation is required to get your patient to submit to the unavoidable infliction of pain. You finish one such operation, and your patient concludes to wait a few days before having nothers of a similar character refilled. He waits a month-six months-and you begin to think he doesn't appreciate the value of his teeth. But be patient; he will probably return before the year expires, and you will want to drill through

the crown and remove the decomposing pulp in that tooth. But possibly he will not exhibit that deference for yovr professional opinion which you think is your due. He will conclude to let the old thing go, and you will ever after have a disagreeable feeling when you meet him. on the street. People do not seem to defer to a dentist as they would to a doctor. We must patiently educate them.

Well, the era of wealth-accumulating for you has not yet arrived, but you are confident it will after a while. A dollar a day for spending money will be enough to furnish you two or three buggy rides a week. week. If you do not care particularly for that kind of recreation, you will perhaps be just as well satisfied to save the money, and so provide against any unpleasantness with your landlord.

The

But we really think you will succeed. Your income the first year will be $2,000. No beginner ever varies more or less from this figure, the first year. We did once hear of a young dentist whose income the first year was $1,982. He had joined the church, and was teaching a class in the Sabbath school at the time he made this statement. The second year he became a backslider; made to himself friends of the “mammon of unrighteousness,” and his income at once rose to $4,500. usual rate of increase in incomes is, say— $3,500 the second year, $5,000 the third, $7,000 the fourth, and so on, until the dentist Owns the county. Dentists are usually very reticent about their wealth, so that the real facts about the lucrativeness of dental practice seldom come to light. The true reason why dentists who have become wealthy so seldom retire, is that there is a certain mild excitement and a peculiar exhilaration derived from working in people's mouths, to which old practitioners become so habituated that they cannot be happy in idleness, or in other less stimulating pursuits.

Don't trouble yourself, just now, about other dentists' incomes, and don't use too much figurative language in talking about your own income. If you have gathered from the foregoing that we are inclined to poke fun at you, be assured that we mean to say nothing to your detriment. We hope you do not belong to that class who go about volunteering suggestions about this, that and the other operation of the treatment of a case, to fellow practitioners who, in the first place, have enjoyed facilities for learning their duties quite equal to those you have enjoyed, and in the second place, have the advantage of a wider experience than you have had. We have seen such young men, and have enjoyed their self-complacency, though not perhaps quite as much as they themselves enjoyed it. Now we are going to drop our tone of pleasantry, and volunteer, in a modest way, a few practical hints, which may be of value, possibly. Make up your mind in the start to do the very best in your power, for each and every one who comes to you. Beware of sloth. You are about to fill a tooth; the day is warm and you have had a hearty dinner, and are not disposed to exert yourself. Why not fill this tooth with a plastic? Your patient does not look as if he could pay for a gold. It will take you two hours to fill with gold against fifteen minutes with amalgam or something else. Now you need grace to nerve yourself to do your best, whether you are to be well paid for your services Shake off your stupor; resolve that you will not smooth the way for an afternoon of ease. If the case requires gold, use it, even if you must work for the price of the material. You say to yourself: 66 'Oh, I don't expect ever to see this fellow again." How can you tell? He may send you hundreds of dollars worth of work. Many beginners seem to have an idea that a dentist finishes his work for a patient, and that is the last of

or not.

that one. beginning.

Ten to one it is only the

Every tooth you fill is an advertisement. You may advertise with amalgam or you may advertise with gold, and the fruit is a one thousand dollar income or a three thousand dollar one, accordingly. The difference between two dentists' incomes frequently represents a difference in energy and application rather than a difference in opportunity. One man yields to the first call for amalgam; another puts in ten minutes' extra work in the way of talk, and gets a good fee for a good filling as his reward. The biggest income not unfrequently attaches to the man who talks most glibly. You say, of course, he is a quack. Oh, no, not necessarily.

Again; learn to seize the first opportunity, and work when a chance first offers. Don't put off your patients needlessly, as some do. Send word to that fellow who is waiting for you down in the drug store that you have a chance to work and will play checkers with him some other time. Work now, while you can, and avoid the habit of procrastination.

The successful dentist is always a student of human nature. He never relies wholly upon his superiority in his art, for he knows well enough that a man may excel his rivals in skill and yet not gain practice. We have seen dentists deport themselves as if they thought they were patronizing their patients instead of being patronized by them. Now an individual comes to you to consult you professionally. He defers to your opinion as to what may be required; at the same time he will think you somewhat singular if, after having seated him in your chair, you proceed to act the part of the autocrat, as in the following conversation we recently overheard:

"Doctor, this tooth has been aching off and on for several "

"Open your mouth!"

"It has hurt me consid-'

"That's all right; never you mind about that."

No man who presumes on such rudeness as this will add to his popularity by his actions. The young man who assumes a lofty superiority and disdains common civility, will lack for patronage. At the same time firmness and decision, when properly exercised, are invaluable qualities. It pays to decline to work for some people.

Be careful how you handle your patients. Some men have a faculty of moving about quietly and calmly, while proceeding with an operation, dropping a kind word of assurance occasionally (which costs nothing), and gaining the confidence of the patient. Others grab hold of the patient's head and thrust it back against the head-rest, as if he were a culprit about to be decapitated. Observation will convince any one that there is much needless infliction of pain by many operators. There is too much blundering along with dull excavators, too much abuse of the engine, and of finishing strips, and of clamps. Some operators seem to regard it as an admirable exhibition of heroism to hurt the patient considerably more than is necessary. "Does that hurt?" we recently heard a dentist ask his patient. "Well, I don't care if it does," he added (good-naturedly, to be sure, and as if he really expected the patient to appreciate the joke.) Do we gain anything by exhibiting contempt for our patients' terror? We have known the dentist to be shunned on the street by those whose resentment he incurred through his heartlessness. It is not necessary to suppress sympathy in order to preserve one's standard of excellence in operating. It will be dollars in your pocket simply to express to your patient,

your pacient, whoever he may be, some hint of what your charge will be. Never lower your fee. It is far better to give your patient the difference between what you want him to pay and what he can afford to pay, than to surrender to him a certain advantage (which he may use to your annoyance), if you yield to his claim that you charge too much. This may seem to be a distinction without a differrence, but it is not. The chances are that if you do not make him perceive that he is under obligation to you he will conceive that you are under obligation to him.

There is no reason why dentists should not collect their bills monthly. In just so far as you extend the limits of your credits you increase the risk of never collecting at all. People in plenty will be found who are willing to take the risk o being in funds to meet your bill six months hence, if you are disposed to be lax about it. The safest plan is to work

only for cash. What you lose of patronage thereby you will more than gain in the sense of security you will enjoy."Ohio State Journal of Dental Science.

HARDENING STEEL.-According to a Sheffield paper a very fine preparation for making steel very hard is composed of wheat flour, salt, and water, using say two teaspoonsful of water, one half a teaspoonful of flour, and one of salt. Heat the steel to be hardened enough to coat it with the paste by immersing it in the compound, after which heat it to a cherry red and plunge it into soft water. If properly done the steel will come out with a beautiful white surface. It is said that Stubbs' files are hardened in this manner.-Druggists Circular.

THE MISSOURI DENTAL JOURNAL. We have received the April number of this valuable journal, which is the first one published under its new management, having been purchased by J. L. Brewster, Jr., of Kansas City. It is ably edited by Dr. R. J. Pearson, assisted by Drs. J. D. Patterson and C. L. Hungerford. If we may judge from the first efforts of its editors, the high standard of its past reputation will be fully maintained, and we shall look for its monthly visits, with much interest.

NOTES ON OPERATIVE DENTISTRY. BY MARSHALL H. WEBB, D.D.S.

on Operative Dentistry are published for the purpose of aiding those engaged in performing operations for the preservation of the natural teeth, and to enable the earnest, careful student, who possesses the necessary ability, to become such a practitioner as every one should desire and aim to be, the author believing that if the methods described are faithfully followed each student can make of himself a really fine operator.

In the description of details, the modes of treatment of the teeth and of operating upon them must necessarily be the methods practiced by the author, and he gives those only which have proved to be, not the easiest but the very best."

In the first chapter, forty pages are devoted to the subject of "Histology," in which the results of recent investigations by Heitzmann and Bodecker are very fully given.

The results of Dr. Bodecker's researches of the normal pulp are given as follows: 1. "The dental pulp is a variety of connective-tissue and termed myxomatous,

facturing Co., 1883.

Members of the profession have for some time been apprised of the intended publication of this work, and are to be congratulated that it is now within their reach.

It maintains a position on certain questions which will find many objectors, and were it not for the fact that the author has passed from the scene of his labors, might be subject to severe criticism. Every man is entitled to his own opinions and to respectful attention whenever he presents them in the proper spirit.

This book contains the opinions entertained by Dr. Webb upon the subject of operative dentistry, and a description of the methods employed by him to produce those beautiful results for which he was so justly celebrated.

Pulp-tissue, therefore, is a remnant of embryonal tissue, lasting in some instances throughout life, and kindred to those formations termed adenoid tissue.

2. "The myxomatous tissue of the pulp is intermxied with a delicate fibrous connective tissue in varying quantities. Pulps entirely or nearly built up by fibrous connective tissue probably are not to be considered physiological.

3. "The pulp-tissue is traversed by a close system of blood-vessels, viz: arteries, veins, and capillaries. Arteries are not invariably found in the pulp, but they are by no means of exceptional occurrence. Lymphatics in small numbers are also present.

4. "The pulp-tissue is richly supplied with nerves, which, in the shape of bundles of medullated nerve-fibres traverse

phery of the pulp they lose their myeline sheaths, become non-medullated, and, in the shape of minute beaded fibrillæ, branch between the odontoblasts.

5. "The odontoblasts at the perpihery of the pulp are elongated bioplosson formations with rows of nuclei. They are medullary corpuscles such as we see wherever a new tissue arises from a former

one.

They build up the basis substance of the dentine by solidification (transformation into glue, and infiltration with lime salts). The reticulum of living matter traversing the odontoblasts remains unchanged in the basis-substance of the dentine.

6. "The dentinal fibres originate between the odontoblasts. Being formations of living matter, they are in direct connection with the reticulum of living matter-first of the odontoblasts and afterwards of the basis-substance of the dentine. The connection between the ultimate nerve-fibrillæ and the dentinal fibers is very probably an indirect one by means of the intervening reticulum of living matter."

The results of Dr. Frank Abbott's microscopical examination of many decayed teeth from the mouths of over thirty different persons, are summed up as follows:

I. "In enamel, caries in its earliest stage is a chemical process. After the limesalts are dissolved out, and the basis-substance liqufied, the protoplasm reappears, and breaks apart into small, irregularlyshaped, so-called medullary or embryonal bodies.

2. "Caries of dentine consists in a decalcification, and in turn a dissolution of the glue-giving basis-substance, around the canaliculi as well as between them. The living matter contained in the canaliculi is transformed into nucleated protoplasmic bodies, which, together with protoplasmic bodies originating from the living matter in the basis-substance, form

the so-called indifferent or inflammatory tissue.

66

3. Cement, if attacked by caries, exhibits first all the phenomena known to be present in the early stages of inflammation of bone. The protoplasmic cement corpuscles, as well as the basissubstance, after its decalcification and liquefaction, produce indifferent or inflammatory elements.

4. The indifferent elements originating through the carious process from enamel, dentine, and cement do not proceed in new formation of living matter, but become disintegrated and transformed into a mass crowded with micrococci and leptothrix.

5. "Caries of a living tooth, therefore, is an inflammatory process, which beginning as a chemical process in turn reduces the tissues of the tooth into embryonic or medullary elements, evidently the same as during the development of the tooth have shared in its formation; and its development and intensity are in direct proportion to the amount of living matter which they contain, as compared with other tissues.

6. "The medallary elements, owing to want of nutrition and to continuous irritation, become necrosed, and the seat of a lively new growth of organisms common to all decomposing organic malerial. 7. "Micrococci and leptothrix by no means produce caries; they do not penetrate the cavities in the basis-substance of the tissues of the tooth, but appear only as secondary formations, owing to the decay of the medullary elements.

8. "In pulpless teeth caries is a chemical process, assisted only by the decomposition of the glue-giving basis-substance of dentine and cement."

As an illustration of the principles upon which the author based his method of practice the following ten articles are given, which he says: "Ought to guide all operators.in the filling of teeth.”