Review of Dental Literature and Art. [Volume: 2, Issue: 1, August, 1860, pp. 33-40]

REVIEW OF DENTAL LITERATURE AND ART.

33

employment of remedial agents, if the patient does not demand a longcontinued and varied course of medication, and at the time is not under
the care of a physician; but should one be in attendance, or in a case of
pregnancy, all of the general systemic treatment should be left to him, the
dentist affording the necessary information with regard to the nature and
character of the local difficulty, and performing the operations demanded.
It is of course unnecessary to dwell upon the importance of removing
in the beginning all the local sources of irritation, such as devitalized
pulps, foreign substances in the pulp cavity, and portions of tartar which
may be far up under the gum and completely out of sight. J. H. M'Q.
THE SYRINGE.
ONE of the most useful and least dispensable instruments employed
by the dentist in his daily practice is a good syringe; and though during
the past few years it has been more and more generally adopted by the
profession, there are many who do not appear to have recognized as yet
the importance of adopting it. To those who in the earlier part of their
practice employed the old plan of washing out the cavity of decay, or the
pulp cavity, by means of a pledgit of cotton wound around the extremity
of an excavator or probe, and then saturated with water, and who have
long since abandoned that unsatisfactory method, it seems incomprehensible how any one can get along without the syringe. Throwing, as a good
one will, a steady and powerful stream of water not only into a simple
cavity, but to the very apex of the pulp chamber, all foreign substances
or vitiated fluids are washed away in the most effectual and satisfactory
manner.
As the injection of cold water upon a sensitive tooth or an exposed
pulp is not merely unpleasant, but decidedly painful, the invariable
employment of tepid water should be adhered to by the practitioner. To
accomplish this, a small pitcher of hot water, kept constantly at hand,
will afford means for qualifying the temperature of the water used.
These may be small matters, but they are all-important in the thoroughness and success of operations and the comfort of patients. J. H. M'Q.
REVIEW OF DENTAL LITERATURE AND ART.
BY J. H. M'QUILLEN, D.D.S.
DR. JOHN SNOW.-The following extract is the opening paragraph of
a biographical sketch, by Dr. B. W. Richardson, of the life and labors of
the late Dr. John Snow, author of the most thorough and voluminous
work yet published on anesthetics:"There is not much credit in the mere acts of living and dying; in
being driven by unavoidable fate through the common journey with
VOL. II.-3