Review of Dental Literature and Art. [Volume: 2, Issue: 11, June, 1861, pp. 611-624]

REVIEW OF DENTAL LITERATURE AND ART.

611

want of skill or integrity but to those general influences which sometimes render the best-directed efforts unavailing.
In conclusion, it should be an invariable rule with the operator, except
in case of sickness, never to allow a day to pass by without introducing at
least one filling, whether patients come or not. It is preferable, of course,
to operate in the mouth; but if that chance is not afforded, it is far
better to place a tooth in a small vice, and operate upon it in that way,
than to lose the opportunity that will be afforded by such means to educate the hand and to acquire and maintain that delicacy of manipulation which is so essential in the operative dentist.
As an evidence of the advantage likely to accrue to one who will adopt
such a course, we remember, when a student of medicine, that a favorite
teacher (Professor Mutter) used to tell of a surgeon in Paris who was
consulted in every case where there was a difficulty in diagnosing the
presence or absence of a stone in the bladder, and his tactus eruditus
was so much relied upon, that a decided expression of opinion from him
settled the question. It is stated that he acquired this remarkable delicacy
of touch by carrying about in his coattail pockets a number of stones, and
as he walked along the streets he would constantly strike them with a
sound similar to that used in exploring the bladder.
In these remarks, if there is one thing we desire to impress upon the
mind of the reader, young or old, more than another, it is that excellence
in any undertaking, whether great or small, is only to be acquired by
constant, unremitting application. J. H. M'Q.
REVIEW OF DENTAL LITERATURE AND ART.
BY J. H. M'QUILLEN, D.D.8.
" TO THE DENTAL PROFESSION AND THOSE CONTEMPLATING THE PRACTICE OF DENTISTRY. —Mr. -, from ----, graduate of the --
College of Dental Surgery, United States of America, gives instructions
to those desiring it in stopping teeth with gold, as practiced by the Ame.
rican dentists. As this branch of the profession is becoming generally
known and more highly appreciated in Great Britain, the object of the
advertiser is to impart, in a few practical lessons, such information as shall
enable the intended practitioner to proceed with confidence in this, the
highest branch of the dental art. Apply, for terms, etc., -, where
also may be seen specimens of stopping."
The paragraph above, which we found in the advertising columns of the
Dental Review, London, is presented as a specimen of the modest assurance that characterizes some of our fraternity when they get abroad.
As it is a rule which we have never swerved from, to deal with principles and not men, in any comments published in this department, the