to make it appear that the recipient had the right to practise medicine; and fourth, the issuing of diplomas with forged signatures. After the replications were filed, counsel for both of the defendants confessed judgment of ouster in favour of the Commonwealth, a part of the record being a letter from Dr. Buchanan authorising such a course. We trust this will end this nefarious business so far as Philadelphia is concerned.

In this connection we may notice the exposure of a similar fraudulent institution in Boston, Mass., by a reporter of the 'Herald' of that city. One "Dr." Harry C. Stickney seems first to have brought the institution into existence at Manchester, N. H., about 1875, by procuring an Act of the Legislature incorporating the "New England University of Arts and Sciences." It was subsequently discovered that the college was being conducted in a fraudulent manner, and the bill incorporating it seems to have been repealed. But in the meantime Stickney had removed his base of operations to Boston. In 1877 information was received from the United States' consul at Brunswick, Germany, to the effect that parties in that country had got into trouble by practising under elaborately engraved diplomas, in Latin, from this institution, with signatures of undiscoverable officers attached. Stickney is supposed to have turned out about one hundred "doctors," the price of diplomas ranging from 100$ to 145$. The plates from which his Manchester and Boston diplomas were struck have been discovered, and he now seems in a fair way of meeting that justice which such practices merit, having acknowledged the substantial correctness of the charges brought against him.

We may as well note that our attention has been called by a correspondent to the fact that a corporation has been formed, to be known as "The Wisconsin Dental College," the same to be located at Delavan, Walworth Co., Wis. The names of the corporators are George Morrison, John Morrison, and D. B. Devendorf. Our correspondent further declares that one of the said corporators, viz. George Morrison, is travelling through Wisconsin disposing of diplomas of the afore-mentioned college on reasonable terms for cash. We shall be happy to correct this statement if it can be shown to be incorrect.-Dental Cosmos.

LEGISLATION FOR DENTISTS.

ALTHOUGH the Bill for regulating the practice of Dental Surgery has now been in existence for two years, still very little is popularly known as to its character, or the way in which it affects the general public. It is a measure of considerable public importance, and in many points resembles the earlier Acts passed for the better organisation of the medical profession. Prior to 1878, any one and every one who chose was at liberty to call himself, or even herself, a Dentist. After Sir John Lubbock's Bill became law it was necessary for these practitioners to apply to the General Medical Council, and give such particulars as were necessary for the publication of a Dental Register; this register is issued by the Council every year, and 1856 copies are sent all over the United Kingdom, to be deposited in the various local law courts. This is necessary for the purposes of justice, as no Dentist can now recover a fee for professional services unless his name be on the Register, whilst the annual publication of the list is rendered necessary in order that those who may be concerned in a case can ascertain whether any particular person has had his name removed from the Register by order of the General Medical Council. Such is a contingency not at all unlikely to arise for the next year or two, as it is no secret that a number of names that should never have appeared have found a place on the list. All these irregularities are of course inevitable in the first working of a new Act, but they will soon be remedied, and the public placed in possession of a register that will be subject to but slight alterations from year to year. This compulsory registration, though of extreme value as a means of recording the names and addresses of all legal practitioners, is by no means the most important part of the Act. The clause rendering a proper education essential for all Dental students is likely to prove of far greater importance, as it will give an annual supply of well-educated Dental surgeons to fill the places rendered vacant by the death or retirement of the senior members of the profession. It is not necessary to enter into the details of the prescribed curriculum, but it is of a nature very similar to that which is essential for the ordinary medical student, only those changes being made which are essential to the special requirements of the Dental surgeon. The licences in Dental surgery, granted by the various colleges of surgeons in the United Kingdom, must henceforth bestow upon their possessors a

definite and valuable professional position, and the public will learn by a reference to the 'Dental Register' who is possessed of this diploma, and also who may be practising simply under the claim to be admitted to the roll of Dentists, as having commenced practice prior to the passing of the Act. So far Parliament has done its share of protective legislation, guarding the patient on the one hand from the unscrupulous charlatan, and the Dental surgeon on the other, from necessary association with ill-educated or totally uneducated pretenders to professional skill. It must, however, after all, rest for a while with the public to exercise that intelligent discrimination in the choice of a Dentist which can alone make the operation of the Act thoroughly useful and efficient.-Brit. Med. Journ.

Dental News and Critical Reports.

AMERICAN NOTES.

FROM A CORRESPONDENT.

THE DENTAL BROTHERHOOD.

THE feeling of esprit de corps is tolerably strong amongst American Dentists, but sometimes the most accomplished members of the profession speak tolerably bluntly of their contemporaries. A few days ago I heard one of the most prominent Dentists of New York remark that he would venture to find among the Dentists of this country some of the biggest scoundrels, thieves, and examples of utter incompetency that were to be found in all the land. He admitted that there were good men also-many of them-but there were at the same time those who would disgrace any profession or trade. There are a great many Dentists in New York who think the same. The fact is, while they entertain a fraternal feeling towards their fellow Dentists in this city, they regard with unconcealed contempt the great mass of provincial men, many of whom have in some way or another become Dentists without having passed the examinations of any college, and perhaps without even having complied with the regulations of the Examining Board of their State. New

York can properly boast of supporting the cream of the profession, but not in the sense that London claims that honour in England. London is the centre of the British Isles-the throbbing heart of a mighty nation-in a sense that New York is not. True, this city is the largest in the Union, but then Philadelphia comes but a very little way behind it, and Chicago boasts that in a few years it will be the largest city in the United States. There is not in New York that overpowering magnetism towards itself which London exerts on the men possessed with the greatest talent in England, and by which it draws to itself a great deal of the genius which originates in the provinces, and which cannot find proper scope for its exertions except in the metropolis. Thus, we in New York, while having some of the best Dentists in the land, have not got them all, although some of us lay the flattering unction to our souls that we have.

BAD HABITS AMONG AMERICAN DENTISTS.

It is a great mistake, into which some Americans fall, to suppose that the majority of our Dentists are very careful to act as gentlemen. They possess some habits which an Englishman would deem utterly at variance with gentlemanlike conduct. One of the chief vices to which our Dentists are addicted is that of chewing tobacco. Does any reader feel inclined to laugh at my speaking so seriously of this habit? If such a reader were an American he might, but if an Englishman-no. A short time ago I chanced to be at a Dental Convention, at which a large number of Southern members of the profession were assembled. There were some from New Orleans, Nashville, Austin, Richmond, and Baltimore, a city boasting of being the first in the world to erect a Dental college. From the latter city there was a Dentist who, from some cause unknown to me, is one of the Dental luminaries of his district. His conduct, incident to his constant habit of tobacco chewing, was such that I forbear describing it, for fear that my readers might feel at least a tithe of the disgust I felt on witnessing it. Then again, at another Convention-held by an association which boasts of being the Association of the States, if not of the world-one of the principal officers was so absorbed in his weed that all those individuals who were not afflicted with like tastes felt sorry for him. There is no exaggeration in this. I represent the facts that my English friends may know what is the actual position of our Dentists in regard to this national habit of chewing tobacco. One of the first objects of a true gentleman is to carry out the principles of

altruism-or in other words, to seek to promote the happiness and comfort of others against a selfish regard only for his own convenience or tastes. I rejoice to say that some of our American Dentists act up to this principle, and their conduct is all the more noticeable because of the disgraceful personal habits of some of their compeers. One would think that one of the absolutely indispensable requirements of a Dentist should be perfect cleanliness in his personal habits. No man who has not this should inflict his objectionable presence on a patient. Before American Dentistry can boast reasonably of supremacy it must purge from itself men who, by virtue of their nastiness, are a disgrace to the profession.

NITROUS OXIDE.

The use of nitrous oxide is becoming very general amongst Dentists in the United States and Canada. Nine out of ten use it blindly, knowing nothing about its mode of acting on the human organism, except that it "sends their patients to sleep," and allows the operator to ply his forceps with a little less regard for his patient's jaws than he otherwise would have to observe. But there is another and perhaps more potent cause for the growing popularity of this anæsthetic. The Dentist is a man who, like most Americans, has a great regard for the power of the "almighty dollar." He buys a cylinder of gas, costing $6, containing, say 100 gallons, and by care he can, by charging each patient extra for its administration, clear $10 or $12 profit. By many member of the profession nitrous oxide, while admitted to be safer than chloroform or ether, is regarded as not only superfluous in the Dental office but as productive of positive harm. A friend of mine, whose name occupies a high position among the Dentists of this city, declares that every Dental office where nitrous oxide is administered is a "pesthouse of iniquitous butchery." Dental conventions give a great deal of their time to discussions on this subject, but they only touch on its surface. They are incapable of doing more. The ordinary Dentists outside our large centres of population have the most superficial knowledge of human physiology, and how should they be able out of the darkness of the inmost recesses of their minds to cast any light on this subject? But we are progressing. We boast a great deal without reason to-day, but the clouds of ignorance are breaking, and although we are indebted to England for the idea of administering nitrous oxide in Dental surgery, we are yet following an original course of study, and it is to be hoped shall one day throw light on its esoteric workings