The composition of that is the same as chloroform, with the addition of iodine in the preparation. I have no doubt that you could get the same effect if you would use the tincture of iodine in combination with chloroform. The iodoform answers the purpose better from being already combined and easily broken up by the action of fluids.

Again, some preparations of zinc are probably best to put in the bottom of cavities when the cavities are large. We have no solid that is more congenial to an irritated surface than oxide of zinc. Mixed with creasote it will form a more perfect covering over a wounded pulp than any other substance you can get.

Dr. S. G. PERRY: I take great delight in the care of children's teeth. I commence very early and urge upon parents the need of great care and constant watchfulness. I do not think I ever filled a temporary tooth with gold in my life. I use tin-foil, oxyphosphate, gutta-percha, and sometimes amalgam. To the permanent teeth, from the time of their eruption, I give the closest attention. I never allow a fissure that shows the slightest sign of softening to go unfilled. Many of those in the grinding surfaces I cut out and fill before the teeth have fairly erupted, because I recognize that the most dangerous period is the first few months after the teeth have broken through the gum. At this time they are often covered by portions of the gum, which cause a sheltered condition conducive to rapid decay in the imperfectly calcified fissures. With soft teeth and a destructive condition of the fluids of the mouth, I often lift the flaps of gum and fill the fissures under them with such materials as I can best use. I rarely use gold, preferring tin or oxyphosphate for such operations.

Every fissure into which I can pass my finest examining point I cut out with delicate instruments or the very finest burs. Under certain conditions I follow the fissures to their extremities, even if they have not already softened, for if this is not done I know that in a few years a second operation will be needed.

Before ten years of age I fill many cavities in the grinding surfaces of permanent teeth with the oxyphosphate of zinc, covering it at once with sandarac varnish. In the grinding surface fissures it sometimes lasts astonishingly. If the teeth are not sufficiently erupted to articulate with the opposing teeth, these fissures can be filled very full, thus allowing for wear. Cavities filled with tin or oxyphosphate at twelve years of age can be kept small, and, the borders being allowed to calcify, smaller fillings can be made at

twenty years of age than if the same cavities had been filled with gold at twelve. At this age the teeth are so soft that they must be cut away considerably to get sufficiently firm borders to receive. gold, whereas we all know that the softened part of a cavity need not be all cut out in order to save the tooth with oxyphosphate or with tin, and we also know that in time the softened borders of the cavity become calcified-sometimes, in fact, even recalcified when decay had actually commenced. Therefore I watch the fissures very closely in young teeth, and endeavor to keep the fillings in them as small as possible. Before ten years of age I use tin or oxyphosphate quite largely. I can do this with safety, because most of my little patients are sent frequently for regular attention.

Whenever I find teeth of good quality and a manageable child, so that I can easily make a permanent operation, I use gold without regard to age. In the front teeth I use oxyphosphate and guttapercha a great deal before even fifteen years of age. Before that age I sometimes use tin in the front teeth, though I prefer to put it in cavities exposed to attrition, for I have observed that in sheltered places it does not keep bright, but becomes oxidized and softened.

Dr. CROUSE: I have nothing particularly new to offer except to indorse largely what Dr. Perry has said as to the filling of the first permanent teeth of children. I cut out the fissures and fill them with some preparation that will protect them for three or four years, or until they can be filled permanently. If the child is one whose teeth I can fill thoroughly without taxing it too much, and the tooth is well organized, I should fill it with gold.

Many times temporary teeth hold in their cavities agents that will destroy the permanent teeth in close and constant contact with them, and in such cases I should cut the temporary teeth away suf ficiently to prevent their injuring the permanent teeth. They are particularly the source of injury to the first permanent molar and the lateral incisor. I should cut away the temporary cuspid freely, so that it could be easily kept clean, as a preventive treatment. I find a great many fissures in the teeth where a slight drilling and a small filling will stop the progress of decay and prevent what would later be a large cavity. This I call preventive treatment.

The most important thing is to get our patients to take care of their teeth. There are a great many parents who will take care of their children's teeth if you give them proper instructions, and who will train the children so that by the time they are ten or twelve years of age they will do that part of their duty thoroughly. This

instruction of parents is what I am particular about in my practice. I think we can do more good in that way than in any other.

Dr. PEIRCE: I want to call attention to a method of preserving the teeth upon which I have the credit of being a little deranged. We are all aware that American people usually at their meals drink freely of milk, tea, coffee, or water. It is very customary for children during meal-time to drink one, two or three glasses of milk, or water, or tea, or coffee with their more solid food, and in this way they take the food into the stomach without proper mastication.

I have under my care three families of children, and through the interest manifested by their parents they have been instructed to refrain from drinking except before and after meals, so that the food is taken into the mouth and masticated in a comparatively dry condition. I am satisfied that since these families have adopted this method the teeth have improved from their additional use in the mastication of dry food. They have also been improved from the better condition of the stomach and nutrition. I am also satisfied that an important factor in the decay of teeth is the lack of proper use and the want of proper nourishment. Both of these are largely facilitated by the absence of fluids during the period of mastication.

Dr. HARLAN: I wish to call your attention to a new method of bleaching teeth, and first will say that I think no escharotic, or acid, or alcohol, or anything of that nature should be introduced into the cavity before bleaching. The rubber dam having been applied the root-canal should be filled from the apex down about one-third of its length. All decay should be removed, but it is not necessary that all discolored dentine should be. The cavity should then be washed with water, or, as I prefer, with peroxide of hydrogen, and well dried, when it is ready for bleaching.

The agent I now use for this purpose is chloride of alumina, the formula of which is Al,C,12H,O. It is a yellowish-looking, granular, crystalline substance. It is placed in the cavity dry, and a drop or two of water added, when it it is immediately deliquesced and the discoloration is readily attacked and destroyed by the chlorine which is immediately liberated. If the discoloration should depend upon the micrococcus prodigiosus, which produces the reddish tinge, it is destroyed at once. One thing should be kept in mind, and that is, that hydrochloric acid is formed within the cavity, which should be neutralized with bicarbonate of soda or some other preparation of that kind, and then the interior of the tooth may be filled with any of the oxychlorides.

You should never permit moisture of the mouth to get into the cavity after the oxychloride has been introduced. The cavity should be hermetically sealed after the lining of oxychloride is introduced. If any of you will try this method of bleaching, you will be aston- · ished at the results.

Dr. V. H. JACKSON: I would like to ask the doctor if the teeth are inclined to return to their original dark color as in other cases? Dr. HARLAN: In those cases that have stood longer than a year there has been no tendency to a rediscoloration of the teeth.

Dr. CALLAHAN: I have been waiting for some older persons than myself to answer the question of Dr. Watkins in reference to extracting the wisdom-teeth.

I had a case of a lady about thirty-five years of age, where I extracted the molar, and in about ten days afterwards the wisdomtooth made its appearance.

Dr. V. H. JACKSON: I had a patient who had been under a physician's care for neuralgia for about a year and a half. It was such an aggravated case that the lightest touch of his moustache would cause the most violent disturbance. The physician had used all methods known to him to relieve the patient of neuralgia, and had treated him both systemically and locally, and also for malaria. He was finally sent to me by the physician to see if there was anything about the teeth that could be the cause of the trouble. I found that one tooth was slightly sensitive to the rap of a metal instrument while the rest of them did not seem to be at all sensitive. I finally, on March 5, extracted the tooth, which was living, and found exostosis at the apex of the root. I was very anxious to save the tooth and I filled the end of the root and the pulp-canal, the crown having already been filled, and reset it.

The gentleman did not have any more neuralgia for about three months. His physician sent me word that I had done more for him in that one operation than he had been able to do in a year and a half of treatment; but on July 7 the gentleman appeared in my office again, and said he had another tooth which ought to be extracted and reset. I examined his mouth very carefully but did not find any symptoms which I thought would justify me in performing a similar operation to the one before made. I counseled with his physician, and told him if he had not tried electricity I should like to have him do so. The patient has not received any benefit as yet from the application of electricity.

I would like to hear from the gentlemen of the Association if they

know of any similar case, and what they can suggest on the subject.

[The following note was received just before going to press, and is inserted here as of peculiar interest.-PUB. COм.]

NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 1888.

THE above case was benefited by constant use of electricity at the hands of an experienced electrician, Dr. Rockwell, and continued to improve till about Oct. 13, when the neuralgia returned with renewed vigor, but was on the other side of the face at this time. The patient wanted the first molar extracted, but finding by careful examination, Oct. 13, that the wisdom-tooth was tender upon the rap of an instrument I extracted that. The patient was instantly relieved and has remained so till this date. There was a slight exostosis at the apex of the root, only not so marked as before.

Dr. ATKINSON: I would like to ask if the tooth which was exostosed had an antagonist?

Dr. JACKSON: The arch was perfect with the exception of one wisdom-tooth.

Dr. ATKINSON: Then the cure is to tie his mouth together at night so that he cannot sleep with it open.

Dr. S. G. PERRY: Let me mention here that for years I have had a great deal of satisfaction in filling very large cavities with amalgam, and after it has crystallized cutting a narrow groove around the margins and filling with gold. With large approximal fillings which run under the gum this can be done only down to the gum margin, but I never look for early failure of amalgam fillings under the gum if they have been carefully finished there. According to my experience such large fillings fail first by the crumbling of the grinding surface borders. By anticipating this crumbling and filling with a narrow band of gold around the margins, permanent operations may be made. Of course, this is not to be done in cavities where gold can be used throughout, but in those large ones where it is desirable to restore the contour with a plastic material.

In this connection I will mention that I sometimes restore crowns upon the roots of the posterior molars by fitting around them a thin band of platinum, which I make as wide as the crown should be long when completed. Having dove-tailed the roots carefully I fill them and the band with amalgam, articulating the opposing tooth upon the amalgam while it is yet soft. The operation is a simple one, and very quickly and easily performed. The band having been fitted around the roots in the mouth and marked, can be soldered with gold in a moment at the chair, and the whole operation com