with it. I go further and make the assertion that, taking 10,000 decayed teeth just as we find them when first presented to us, teeth of the rich and poor, of the high and low, of the clean and the slovenly, of the healthy and the sick; I say take 10,000 decayed molar and bicuspid teeth, in all stages of decay, from an enamel fissure to an exposed pulp or ulcerating root-teeth soft and teeth hard,-chalky teeth and brittle teeth,—let the average dentist plug 5,000 of them with a good amalgam, and the other 5,000 with gold; inspect them ten years from date, and you will find that more teeth have been saved with the former than with the latter. This is an assertion that a thousand dentists in the West will bear me out in. Perhaps some high-toned Eastern city dentist will say that the dentists of the West have not the skill to work gold, and that they had better insert amalgam for their "granger customers," as all concede that amalgam proves more durable in the hands of a bungler than gold. If any of them tell you this, just say to them that hundreds of the fillings we see have been inserted before the people came West, and that it is seldom that a perfect gold plug is met with that has withstood the wear of 10 years, unless it be cylinder fillings in approximal surfaces of incisors.

Some men in writing for the defense of amalgam will begin by saying "I do not wish to appear as an apologist for amalgam." or this, "I do not wish to be understood as favoring amalgam when gold can be used." Well neither do I wish you to think that I would use and recommend any amalgam filling in such cases or positions when the purse of the patient or skill of the dentist will demand and justify the use of gold. I would not fill cavities in front teeth with anything but gold, unless my patient refused to pay for it. If I had not the skill to insert a fair gold plug, even in the most difficult cavity in the teeth, I would quit dentistry and go at something else. A great many persons labor under the mistaken impression. that "amalgams" are necessarily all alike. Now this is as great an error as to suppose that the thousand and one chemicals and drugs in an apothecary's shop have the same properties simply because they are all called medicines.

An amalgam is simply the result of the union of mercury with

some other metal. This other metal may be silver, platinum, or gold; or it may be zinc, tin, or copper-and the properties of these different amalgams may be as diverging and opposite to each other as the effect produced by taking a handful of cathartic pills differs from the sensations experienced on listening to an old fashioned orthodox sermon. Now when I, as a friend, tell

you that you can safely make use of an amalgam in your practice when the circumstances of the case demand some other filling than gold, I don't say that you may carelessly prepare the cavities, leaving sharp, rough, thin edges to break and crumble away; neither do I tell you that you can safely permit dead and decayed portions of the tooth to remain, and then plug the cavity, while submerged in the saliva, with a poor cheap amalgam -one that will shrink and leak and turn as black as the ace of spades and expect successful results to follow. You can't do it, and have no right to expect it. Yet how many there are who do not half prepare and cleanse those teeth that they fill with amalgam. If gold were placed in these teeth with no better preparation, I imagine that their lives would be very short indeed. When you prepare a tooth for an amalgam filling, you must be as particular in each step of your work as though it was to receive a gold filling, and that your reputation as a skillful dentist all depended upon this one operation. If the cavity is in the crown, cut and dress away until you have a square solid margin, if an approximal cavity separate by files and chisels until you are sure that the teeth will not move together again. Wide separations must be made between molar and bicuspid teeth when their approximal surfaces are filled, if yo expect your operations to endure. After you have the tooth ready for filling, don't, please don't, stuff it with a mixture of one-half mercury and onehalf lead or zinc, and then join in with the prejudiced, ignorant, bigoted mob, and undertake to howl down the "d-d poisonous stuff." No, don't do that; but select some good alloy and mix it properly and carefully with as little mercury as possible, and plug the cavity, keeping the tooth dry during the operation. I should like to tell you what amalgam shrinks and discolors the least in the mouth, or in other words, what amalgam is the best --but I do not dare to, for I fear you may show this letter to

somebody, and then that somebody would accuse me of Belknapism (which is the word in the United States language for bribery). However, if some manufacturers of amalgam will give me 3 or 4 ounces, I will stretch my elastic conscience (Bacon has not vulcanized it yet) enough to recommend his make. Don't all speak at once! Seriously, I have made a large number of such experiments as that learned, indefatigable worker and scientific exper imentalist, the editor of the MISSOURI DENTAL JOURNAL, recommends and I find a great difference in the properties of the dif ferent amalgams. If I could see you privately I would tell you the result of my experiments, but until then you must judge for yourself. If you will tell me how many dentists there are in the United States whose prejudice to amalgam prevents them from using it, I will tell you how many self-conceited, dental asses our country contains.

My next will be on the subject of Dental Fees.

Truly Yours,

GOLD FOIL.

A NEW WAY OF FILLING ROOTS.

I have found a pretty thick alcoholic solution of shellac to be one of the very best, if not the best, of materials for filling the roots of teeth. It can very easily be forced to the ends of the roots, whether in the upper or under jaw, by merely saturating a bit of cotton or spunk with the solution, and manipulating it in the pulp chamber; it is not necessary at all to carry an instrument into the roots. It will flow through the most crooked canals, even if of hair-like dimensions, and partly occupied with root vessels, which you have been unable to remove. The cav ity, decay should be plugged with the same material and cotton,

and allowed to remain a week or more, as convenient. The object of this is to allow the saliva of the mouth to abstract the alcohol from the shellac, leaving the latter in the roots in a solid state. Water has such an affinity for alcohol that it will take all the latter from a solution of shellac. I use it practically in the mouth. But did not until I had experimented on extracted teeth, which the reader can do also. And, Mr. Reader, if you will fill the roots and cavities of decay of a few extracted teeth, and immediately throw them into water, you can see for yourself how rapidly the shellac will harden.

A drop or two of aniline red, placed in an ounce of shellac solution, will enable you to see the result of your root filling immediately, by holding the tooth up between your eye and the light. But I do not recommend aniline in the solution that you use in the mouth. Dried up root vessels embalmed in shellac will not be likely, at all, to cause any trouble by decomposition, even if left in the roots of teeth. In more than three-fourths of the cases, portions of root vessels are left on account of difficult or careless removal.

I feel very confident that if the reader will experiment in this direction he will see the great value of this new mode of treating

roots.

If the operator should be under the necessity of immediately plugging the cavity of decay permanently, I see no reason why he might not do so after using shellac in the roots. Syringing out the cavity with water would harden the shellac at the canal openings, immediately, enough for the insertion of a plug. The small quantity of alcohol in the roots would be absorbed by the water in the surrounding tissues.

HENRY S. CHASE.

"METHOD," said Cecil, (afterward Lord Burleigh), "is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much again as a bad one." Cecil's dispatch of business wns extraordinary, his maxim being, "the shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once."

AMALGAM PORTES.

go go

Two-thirds size. Nos, 1 and 2, end of plungers.

Above are cuts of AMALGAM PORTES. These instruments are for placing Amalgam filling in difficult or inconvenient cavities, and are almost indispensable in some cases. They are made of fine steel, highly polished, and mercury will not adhere to them. The plunger or piston withdraws to a sufficient extent, and the pellet of amalgam is placed in the end of the tube, carried where