the circle at a given signal she advances, and falls into the arms of several who stand ready catch her. I recollect with Lieutenant Allen, watching about twenty Felatah girls, at this amusement, and we were both much pleased with their innocent ways. The dances of the adults are not so interesting to an European to witness. Their dance is a succession of painful efforts, commencing with a very slow and solemn step; the performers stamping with each foot, bending the body, and lowering the shoulders, and dropping the arms carelessly by their sides. They then make the most prodigious springs and vehement pirouettes, with extravagant contortions of the muscles, accompanied with similar action of the muscles of the face, and hop about until they fall down breathless from exertion.

"The marriage of the natives is merely a civil compact, to be dissolved when the man thinks proper. If a pagan pays his addresses to a girl, and after a short time finds she is "all his fancy painted her," he sends the parents a present of cloth, an elephant's tooth, probably some cowries, or anything he may happen to have by him at the time. If these articles are accepted, and the father considers them an equivalent for the loss of his daughter's services, the girl leaves her father's house, and if a virgin, she is covered round her loins with a shawl or cloth, presented by her lover, having worn nothing but a piece of leather or a few strings of cowries round the loins previously: dancing takes place, palm-wine and beer are drunk, and all are happy for a time. Should the man in the course of time become tired of the girl, he sends her home, giving her some small present."

OBITUARY OF DR. HARRIS DUNSFORD.

It is with great regret that the death of Dr. Harris Dunsford is now recorded. He was one of the few, who advovocated and practised homœopathy in the metropolis: and his loss is much to be deplored, because he had much of the suaviter in modo, which, though not sufficient in itself without the fortiter in re, to fight the battles of a new truth, has an influence with a large class. In fact, the Melancthons have their use as well as the Luthers.

ON ARTIFICIAL TEETH,

BY LEONARD KOECKER, ESQ., M.D., D.D.S., SURGEON DENTIST.

ESSAY SEVENTH.

ON ARTIFICIAL OBTURATORS AND PALATES,

The defects of the mouth which require restoration by means of artificial obturators and palates are either congenital, or the effects of disease, the abuse of medicines, or accident. Cases of harelip, accompanied by more or less defect, or the entire absence of the palate, belong to the first; those arising from the abuse of medicines and accidents are more variable in their form and extent, as well as in the parts on which they exert their destructive influence.

Artificial obturators and palates may be divided into simple and complicated; the former are applied without the addition of artificial teeth, and the latter present a combination of an artificial obturator or palate with artificial teeth.

I have, in treating on the subject of artificial teeth, sufficiently insisted on the importance of the preservation of the natural teeth, by restoring them to perfect health, for the purpose of permanently supporting the artificial apparatus. If the remaining natural teeth are of great importance in the insertion of artificial teeth, they are of much greater value in the application of obturators or palates, and still more in the application of those preparations in which artificial teeth and artificial obturators or palates are combined.

The first object in the treatment of such cases should, therefore, be to render perfectly healthy the parts which are to receive the intended artificial apparatus, and these are not only all the osseous and soft structures which form the surrounding edges of the cavity, but also the gums, sockets, jaws, and teeth.

In every instance in which there is a sufficient absence or defect of such parts of the mouth as are indispensably necessary either for pronunciation or elocution, mastication or deglutition, in order to restore or assist these important functions, so soon as the sufferer has arrived at the age of puberty, the parts of the mouth being then fully developed,

D

nothing can be more desirable and more decidedly indicated than a proper artificial substitution for such a defect.

By a proper substitution, is not one which, though it may, by its immediate effect, remove the mechanical in convenience of the disease, will, at the same time, by its mechanical irritation, inevitably augment that very defect.

It is difficult to supply by rules what the judgment of the dentist must supply; but, it may be stated, that in cases where all, or the greater part, of the teeth are sound, a simple obturator or palate only is generally indicated, and in cases in which one or more important teeth have been lost, a complicated apparatus is most frequently required.

As to the material to be used, fine gold is the metal best calculated to answer the expectations both of the patient and the dentist.

Every substance or material which is calculated to absorb mucus, or matter, such as sponge and gum elastic, substances usually employed, are injurious both from the mechanical pressure and irritation they produce, (by their increase in size from the absorption of fluid matters,) upon the tender and irritable parts, as well as from their chemically corrosive and disagreeable tendency.

In the preparation and the attachment of the artificial palate, science indicates itself by the utmost simplicity.

But to obtain all the advantages, and to avoid all the disadvantages, of these artificial restorations, every means of support which would produce irritation and diseased action, must be scrupulously avoided in the application and formation of artificial obturators and palate; such as ligatures of silk or wire, injudiciously prepared clasps and springs, and even dead roots and pivoted teeth; sponges, preparations of gum elastic, the various complicated contrivances made use of by Fouchard, Delabarre, and others, to supply the deficiencies in the palate, are so opposed to the principles laid down, that it would be useless to describe them.

It will be best to illustrate what obturators can do by the

case.

Mr. Kean, the tragedian, consulted me in 1830.

About five years previous to my seeing the patient he had been under a very severe mercurial treatment, which had greatly affected and injured his gums and teeth, &c. He subsequently consulted Sir Astley Cooper, who, by an active anti-mercurial treatment, soon restored his general health. That judicious surgeon also earnestly impressed upon him the necessity of obtaining proper and judicious dental advice, which, however, he did not obtain.

The diseases of his mouth from that period rapidly advanced, and gradually increased to a great extent. His speech became perfectly unintelligible, and his fluid, and sometimes even his solid food returned through his nose. This inconvenience he was in the habit of obviating by stopping up the cavities of the palate with cotton or linen. Although these expedients enabled him for years to follow his professional avocations with satisfaction to the public, yet they were accompanied with constant pain; and the permanent irritation and pressure produced by this mode of filling up the diseased cavities, unavoidably became a great cause of aggravation to the disease of the mouth.

His breath also became so intolerably offensive, that the ladies of the dramatic company, whose part required them to approach the patient, were compelled to keep at a distance, and at last refused altogether to perform on the same stage with him. This evil was for a long time alleviated by his medical attendant, Mr. Douchez, who employed every means in his power to maintain the health of the constitution of the patient; nevertheless, reluctant to relinquish the duties of his profession for the period of time he feared might be necessary to remove his complaint, the gentleman continued to delay to submit to that treatment by which alone the disease could be arrested, and a permanent cure obtained. At length, however, he was compelled, by pain and inconvenience, to seek some relief, and, on July 3, 1830, the patient was introduced to me by Mr. Douchez.

His age was about 30, his constitution originally was very good and robust, but it was then suffering from great debility, anxiety, and depression of spirits.

Previously to examining his mouth, it was necessary to remove a great quantity of cotton and linen from the diseased cavities of the palate, the odour of which was very fœtid. His speech then became perfectly nasal and unintelligible, and some warm water, with which I requested him to wash his mouth, was immediately returned by the nose, unless he closed the nostrils with his fingers.

All the teeth of the right side of the upper jaw, situated between the right wisdom tooth and the left lateral incisor, had entirely lost their vitality, and the external and internal circle of the gums and sockets containing the teeth were, to a certain extent, perfectly dead; the former being nearly wasted away, the latter still remaining, and surrounding and mechanically retaining the dead teeth, more or less black in appearance, and in a state of putrefaction. Along the outer side of the molar and canine teeth there was an opening about an inch and a half long, and a quarter of an

inch wide, which perfectly exposed the cavity of the jaw, and along the inside of the same teeth another opening of about the same extent, bringing into view the cavity of the nose. And in the centre of the palate there was a