which shall be valuable to the Old World as well as ourselves.

DENTISTS DISAGREEING.

In the far-away West, three thousand miles from New York across the Continent, some of the Dentists who claim to be representative men, are just now quarrelling over a proposed new Dental College. A venerable Dentist-Dr. Cogswell by name-has offered to give a building and site in San Francisco for a college if sufficient money is raised amongst those interested in the project to provide the necessary appurtenances for the carrying out of the work. But the worthy doctor names as a condition of the gift that it be called for ever "the Cogswell Dental College." Some of the leading opponents of the scheme-for there are actually men who advocate a non-acceptance of Dr. Cogswell's offerobject to this naming of the college, and rather than submit to it they are willing to sacrifice the proposed gift. The value of the property is about 10,000 dollars, and to my readers it may seem very impolitic for it to be refused on so slight a plea. The West Coast Dentists need a college badly. The Dental offices of that region are dominated far too generally by a class of adventurers who have but small claim to be regarded as gentlemen. Good Dentists are at a discount, and those who have really the interests of the profession at heart see in the proposed college an institution which shall send forth men imbued with creditable aspirations as well as qualified to act as Dentists. There is great danger, however, of such an institution being wanting for years to come judging from the conduct of the local Dentists. They are pursuing a dog-in-the-manger policy; they neither desire the school for their own education, nor for the education of any one else.

Miscellanea.

SPEECH FOR THE DUMB.

ALTHOUGH this is not a subject specially connected with Dentistry, it is one in which educated men of all professions must feel an interest. It is not altogether creditable to us as a nation that, whilst in Germany all but a very small pro

portion of the congenitally deaf are taught to speak, here, in England, only an infinitesimal proportion are so taught, and a very considerable proportion grow up without any education whatever. The explanation of this is found in the fact that in Germany the education of deaf children is undertaken by the State, and is therefore carried out in such a way as to render the child an independent and useful citizen, capable of communicating freely with his fellow-men, and of gaining his own living. Though still deaf he is no longer dumb, and in spite of his deafness he is able to understand the speech of those with whom he comes in contact.

In England the education of this afflicted class has been left to private enterprise and charity. Although much has been done by this means, it has never been able to carry out the work as it should be done. At the last census (1871) it was found that there were over 4000 deaf and dumb children who had never been to school, and for whom there was no accommodation in any of the existing institutions; during the last ten years it is believed that this disproportion has considerably increased. All the asylums being full, and in constant receipt of urgent applications for admission, the great object has been to do a certain amount of good to the largest possible number, and as deaf children can be taught the language of signs in about one fourth of the time that is required to teach them to speak and to understand speech, the French (or sign) system has been almost universally adopted in this country. But when children so taught leave the asylum they are very badly armed for the business of life; not one person in a thousand understands their language; they are driven to herd together, they intermarry, and thus the affliction is propagated by hereditary transmission.

Thus it has come to pass that, while in Germany it has for a hundred years past been the exception for a deaf child to grow up dumb, here in England it has been much more exceptional for a deaf child to be taught to speak.

About ten years ago a school was established on the German system by some clear-sighted members of the Jewish community for deaf and dumb children of their own race. A Mr. Van Asch had, a few years earlier, established a private school in London, and his success did much to call attention to the subject. Then a Society was formed for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, and an excellent school was opened in Fitzroy Square under a Mr. Van Praagh. By these efforts public opinion in England has been considerably roused, and attempts have been made to introduce the German system in various provincial towns. But unfortunately there were no teachers available; the gentlemen above

mentioned came from Rotterdam, and the master of the Jewish School is a German (Herr Schontheil). It was absolutely necessary that some English teachers should be trained on this system, and to meet this want a training school has been established at Ealing by the "Society for Training Teachers of the Deaf." A well known member of our profession, Mr. Howard Hayward, is an active member of the Committee of this useful institution, and we hope that this brief account of the movement may induce many more of our readers to interest themselves in it, to spread a knowledge of it amongst their patients, and to help it as far as they can with their own and their friends' subscriptions. Those who wish for a more detailed account of the German system and its results should read a small pamphlet by Mr. Ackers (Longmans & Co.), or the paper by Mr. Kinsey, the principal of the Ealing Training College, published by Allen & Co, Waterloo Place.

REPAIRING RUBBER PLATES; METALLIC, INSTEAD OF WAX BASE PLATE.

By S. ARTHUR Garber, D.D.S., Tipton, Iowa.

WHEN the plate is broken entirely apart, fasten together with wax, invert, and run plaster upon the palatal surface, making a perfect model; when the plaster is well set carefully remove each piece from this model, and with a jeweller's saw or a file cut away one fourth of an inch along each side of the fracture, and make dovetail cuts at intervals, transversely to the break, with burring engine or lathe circular saw; cut a groove half through the plate from front to posterior border as close to the molar teeth as new rubber is to go; chisel, burr, and scrape out the old rubber to the same depth as the groove is cut; replace each piece firmly on the model, and instead of waxing up in the usual way, take heavy tinfoil or tea-chest sheet lead (which is cheaper), and cut of the latter from five to eight or more thicknesses-according to the case-in width and length sufficient to cover the surface designed to be occupied by new material. Lay on and burnish down, and run a little wax all around the edge of this metal base plate to fasten it to the broken plate. Thus prepared it is ready for the flask. When the upper section of the flask is taken off the sheet lead can be easily and quickly removed. As there is no wax in the grooves or counter-sinks it is clean and ready for immediate packing. Before replacing the upper section of the flask scrape off all

lumps or irregularities from the surface of the plaster, making it perfectly smooth. Plates that are only partly broken apart can be scraped, counter-sunk, and the same kind of base plate used as described. By this method much time, both in the preparation and final finishing of the case, can be saved. In the former kind of breaks an entirely new and solid piece of rubber takes the place of the fracture.Missouri Dental Journal.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DENTISTRY.

SIR,-I observe, in your journal of November 27th, a short discussion at the Odontological Society of Great Britain on ancient Egyptian Dentistry: Whether teeth stopped with gold had been found in mummies, or not? an affirmative statement having been made by Sir Gardener Wilkinson, and negatived by several others, after careful inquiries and personal investigations. I do not write either to corroborate the one or the other, only humbly to observe, as it may interest some of the members of the Society, curious on the subject of old teeth-stopping, &c., to know that I have seen, in the Etruscan Museum of Corneto, the ancient Tarquinia of Etruria-(a few hours' railway distance from Rome)-teeth in a skull, bound together and kept in their places by gold thread cleverly twisted in and out amongst them; and I think I have also seen solid gold-stopping there, or in the Etruscan Museum of the Vatican, or at Signor Augusto Castellani's here. Etruria, of course, was not Egypt, and Etruscan remains were perhaps posterior to Egyptian mummy times; yet modern researches have brought to light some similarities in their tombs and tomb contents. Their architecture, too, in some instances resembled Egyptian; and I may mention also the scaribæus gems, so common in Etruscan collections, point as their origin to the deified beetles of the Nile. May they not have adopted the teethtying with gold thread and the stopping of decayed teeth with gold from the Egyptians?-Yours truly, JOHN GRIGOR, M.D., No. 3, Piazza di Spagna, Rome, December 6th, 1880.

SIR,-Adverting to a discussion on ancient Egyptian Dentistry that is reported in your issue of the 27th ult., and with especial reference to that part of it which throws doubt on the accuracy of Sir Gardener Wilkinson's statement, allow me to present you with a cutting from Notes and Queries," of October 11th, 1879, which appears to uphold it.

"Stopping Teeth with Gold (5th S. xi. 448, 497.)—Sir J. Gardener Wilkinson, in his Popular Account of the Ancient

Egyptians,' Lond., Murray, 1874, vol. ii. p. 350, states: 'And it is a singular fact that their Dentists adoped a method, not very long practised in Europe, of stopping teeth with gold, proofs of which have been obtained from some mummies of Thebes.' I remember some time ago also seeing in the Mayer Museum at Liverpool, the jawbone of an ancient Egyptian with a false tooth secured by a golden wire.-A.W.M."

I underline the part to which I refer, and I believe that additional confirmation of the fact-for such, I think, it is, may be found in Thomas Pettigrew's 'Egyptian Mummies,' or in Bunsen's Egypt's place in Universal History.'

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Describing the battle in which Kootle-ood-Deen, the General of Mahomed Ghoory defeated (Circetes anno 1450 or so) and slew the Rajah with an arrow, which pierced his eye, Ferista says (Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India,' translated by Briggs, vol. i, p. 892) that the "corpse of the Rajah was recognised by his artificial teeth, which were fixed in by golden wires."-Yours, &c., W. CURRAN, Warrington.

P.S.-The same Ferista relates, apropos of the Cæsarean section and artificial feeding in fever, &c. (Ibid. vol. i, p. 545), that "the wife of Kaly Khan, his own cousin, was smothered by the fall of her house, when pregnant. Her husband caused her to be instantly opened (about the period noted above), and saved the life of the infant, who was called Bulloo." As regards the artificial feeding, he adds, vol. ii, p. 8, that baby's life was saved in a dangerous illness "by conveying sustenance (to him) through moistened cotton, applied to his lips." Verily, there is nothing new under the sun!-Brit. Med. Journ.

THE CAPE COLONY DENTISTS' REGISTER.

MR. B. T. HUTCHINSON writes to us from Cape Town, South Africa, to say that the Colonial Government have lately established an official list of qualified Dentists. All Dental practitioners who possess diplomas granted by a recognised college, or other licensing body, have been requested to send in these documents for registration; the names of all practitioners, whose credentials are approved, will be inserted in an official list, which will be published annually with the already existing list of legally qualified medical practitioners. Unlicensed Dentists have not as yet been placed under any restrictions, but the publication of this Register is a step in the right direction, since it will enable the public at once to ascertain whether or not any given