rattling or wobbling of the drills; and I am most careful to keep it free from rust and grit by means of india-rubber shields and plenty of oil, and also make a careful selection of my burrs, and by not using them too large for the cavity avoid most of the unpleasantness usually complained of. 1, St. Domingo Vale, Liverpool.

[Mr. Musgrave speaks of "English Practitioners" as if the abuse of amalgam to which he refers was general. Here, in London, it does not, so far as our observation enables us to judge, prevail to the extent which appears to be the case in Liverpool; but no doubt the rules of practice vary somewhat in different parts of the country. We should be glad to have reports on this subject from other provincial centres. -ED. B. J. D. S.']

Mechanical Dentistry.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF CELLULOID? By W. HODGSKIN HOPE.

Ir is almost amusing to notice the strenuous and repeated efforts put forward by our American friends to induce English Dentists to use this extraordinary compound. Many have been the articles and letters which have appeared from the believers in, and supporters of, this material; but to my mind in none of them can be detected sufficient reasons given, and advantages held out, for a partial or wholesale departure from the use of vulcanite.

English Dentists want real and bonâ-fide reasons, and evidence of some practical gain as well, before they will subject their patients to a series of experiments, and allow their own. reputation to be unsettled by the introduction of anything new, when excellent results have always been obtained by means already at hand. It is a mistake to suppose that because celluloid is not more universally used it has not had a fair trial. A fair trial has been granted it by very many, with the result of banishment from the workroom for evermore.

At the outset, it is an open question whether the prin

ciple upon which such a material is worked is not radically wrong. For, even in the diversified working of vulcanite, every Dentist is familiar with difficulties innumerable occurring constantly, that would be greatly magnified were such a substance as celluloid to be substituted. In fact, its inadaptability to most cases, the extreme care required in working it, and the extra amount of trouble entailed, have proved a detriment, and will remain as lasting reasons why celluloid can never have the future before it which is fondly imagined by its champions. Although our manipulations of plaster may be by no means perfect, we are yet enabled as a rule to work it at great advantage under our present system. But even at its best, a risk is always imminent when closing up, from the fact that the pressure is so often brought to bear upon isolated portions of the plaster. Even with vulcanite (which can be packed with the utmost precision) breakages and misplacements frequently occur; and it seems obvious, that our object of insuring freedom from accidents by distributing the pressure over the whole surface, is in no way helped forward by the introduction of a material which, in addition to having nothing to recommend it that belongs not to vulcanite, has for its working principles which may be said to be opposed to all known laws of mechanics. But once let its superiority to rubber be clearly proved, and nothing in the world can prevent it eventually taking its place.

Wellingborough, Dec. 18th.

AN ANNOYING ACCIDENT.

I SUPPOSE that others besides myself have experienced the following accident:

Flat teeth having been soldered to a plate, one of the teeth. during the process of finishing falls away from its back-or, it may be while inserting the case in the mouth, the accident happens-unaccountably. There is no sign of weakness about the tooth; it comes away bodily, the pins having given way flush with the mineral where they enter the metal back. The appearance of the platinum at the point of fracture is like that of broken steel, and might give one the idea that some corrosive agent had done the mischief.

What is the cause of this accident? I have observed in all cases which have come under my own notice that solder had found its way through the back, and more or less

covered the surface of the gold next the back of the tooth. Might not this solder when the case cools act as a wedge between the metal back and the tooth, and so wrench the one from the other? For suppose that a back is fitted accurately to a tooth, on heating the case highly the parts will expand and become freer, and so allow access to solder either through by the pins or by the junction of the plate with the back. When the case cools the parts naturally return to their former positions, but the solder erupted inside the back prevents this, hence the strain upon the platinum, which at last gives way, and the tooth drops off. The appearance of the platinum leads one to the conclusion that it has been subjected to some outward strain, and it would be satisfactory to discover its cause. Perhaps some of your readers could throw some further light upon this matter.

I may say that lately I have specially guarded against the possibility of solder making its way through as described, and I have not since met with the same accident. Sufficient time, however, has not transpired to test whether the method adopted has prevented the evil.-SCHWALBACH,

British Journal of Dental Science.

LONDON, JANUARY 1, 1881.

IN turning over the pages of the volume we have just completed, our readers cannot fail to be struck with the prominence which is given to the subject of Anæsthetics. Amongst the numerous articles on this subject which appeared in this Journal during the past year we would in particular recall to our readers' recollection the abstract of the "Report on the Action of Certain Anæsthetics," drawn up by a committee of the British Medical Association, which appeared in our issues of August 1st and September 1stthe full text of this valuable report will be found in the 'British Medical Journal' for December 18th-and the excellent résumé of the whole question, entitled "Anæsthetics, their Position and Prospects," for which we were

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indebted to the American 'Quarterly Journal of the Medical Sciences.' Few will, we feel sure, find fault with our conduct in this respect. As one of the reviewers of Dr. Rottenstein's work on 'Surgical Anæsthesia' recently remarked-" This subject has always been one specially interesting," and he might have added, of the greatest practical importance," to Dentists, since they, among professional men, are most frequently called upon to perform minor surgical operations of a very painful character, and in which people in general are especially glad to have the advantage of anesthesia." Nor, as the same writer points out, has this interest been barren of practical results. "It is to a Dentist that we owe the discovery of anesthesia by ether, and to Dentists also we owe the introduction of protoxide of nitrogen as a surgical anesthetic."

Or, if any should be inclined to grumble at the amount of space which we have devoted to the consideration of this question, which after all is but an adjunct to the actual business of our profession, we have at least the excuse that we have sinned in good company. It has indeed been the topic of the day, and so numerous and important have been the references to this subject in the current medical literature that we have had the greatest difficulty in keeping our readers informed of the most important phases of the question.

The last of these may be said to be a vigorous charge of the anti-chloroform faction. The columns of the British Medical Journal' have long afforded these gentlemen a vantage ground, and here the "Ether versus Chloroform " controversy has been raging for weeks past, varied by a slight skirmish over Dr. Ernest Jacob's "Chloroform Death Bill" letters in the pages of the Lancet.' Quite recently the editor of the British Medical Journal' has published a tabulated list of all the published deaths from anæsthetics which have occurred in this kingdom during the last eleven years, viz. from December, 1869, to December, 1880. In all, 148 fatal cases are here recorded; of these 120 were due to chloroform, 11 to ether, 7 to chloroform and ether jointly, and 10 to bichloride of methylene.

It should be noted, first of all, that some of these deaths were only indirectly due to the anaesthetic used; thus, there are four cases in which the patient was suffocated by foreign matter in the trachea, and in others the patients were in a state of collapse at the time of the operation. Then there are among the chloroform cases four in which the drug was self-administered; it is plainly as unjust to use these to swell the charge against chloroform as it would be to disparage the value of opium because laudanum is occasionally used for suicidal purposes.

It is constantly alleged by the anti-chloroformists that, in estimating the total number of deaths from this cause, the published deaths must be supplemented by a large number of unpublished ones. During the early days of the movement this statement appeared to be reasonable, but during the last four or five years public opinion has been so roused that we believe it is scarcely possible for a case to escape the notice of the press. We may, therefore, take the record for the years 1875-80 to be fairly accurate, and we find that the deaths under chloroform were: in 1875, ten cases; in 1876, ten cases; in 1877, ten; in 1878, ten; in 1879, ten; and in 1880, thirteen. Amongst these there is a case of suicide, and another of asphyxia not specially chargeable to chloroform. We need only add that Dr. Jacob, of Leeds, one of the foremost champions of the anti-chloroform party, admits that each fatal case represents not less than 3000 successful administrations. From these figures our readers may judge for themselves how far the editor of the British Medical Journal' and his following are justified in their openly-expressed opinion that a verdict of manslaughter in any of these cases would be a meritorious and public-spirited act on the part of a coroner's jury.

To a certain extent we are all anti-chloroformists; we all fear and distrust it, and should hail with delight the discovery of a more reliable agent. It is said that we have this in ether, and to a certain extent this is true. But the use of ether is attended with great disadvantages, especially for operations in the mouth and when administered by inexperienced hands. The fact that the majority of the medical men