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To produce a thoroughly satisfactory and sanitary vulcanite denture, the vulcanizing process must be so conducted that there will be a constant pressure brought to bear upon the rubber as it vulcanizes, a sufficient quantity of it being present to insure the filling of the mold at the termination of the process, and to compensate for the shrinkage which inevitably occurs during the conversion of rubber compound of any kind into vulcanite. The pressure must be gradual and firm, and sufficient in amount to force the rubber against the

surfaces of the mold and teeth, and hold it in intimate contact therewith.

The vulcanizing temperature should not be above 300° by the mercury bath thermometer, this being 320° actual temperature; or if a thick mass of rubber must be vulcanized the temperature should be still lower. Rubber can be well vulcanized at a temperature as low as 265° as shown by the mercury bath thermometer. A flask should be allowed to cool very gradually, and should not be opened until it is at room temperature.

231 KENNEBEC AVE.

Dentistry After the War: A Promising Professional Field for Young Men.

By EDWIN N. KENT, D.M.D., Boston, Mass.,

PRESIDENT DENTAL HYGIENE COUNCIL OF MASSACHUSETTS; DIRECTOR OF EXTENSION LECTURES, NATIONAL MOUTH HYGIENE ASSOCIATION.

T

HE industrial readjustment which will follow the present war will affect nearly all vocations to some extent for better or worse. The changed conditions will have the most marked influence on pursuits connected with manufacturing interests, and least in the professional fields.

One profession, however, will reap the benefits of a greatly increased demand, a demand which its present members must fall far short of meeting. Dentists may look forward to a season of unusual prosperity.

The cause is simply a matter of education. At the outbreak of the war the registered dentists in this country could properly care for but twenty million patients. Eighty per cent. of our people did not patronize dentists except for emergency service; did not demand proper dental treatment.

The situation was due, to some extent, to the expense of dental service, but it

was due to a much greater extent to the fact that a large majority of individuals have not realized or appreciated the value of a clean, unimpaired, healthy masticating organ in connection with the maintenance of systemic health.

The requirements of the present war have placed representatives from several million American households where they will live under rules and restrictions designed to build up strong bodies and develop physical efficiency. Compulsory dental service and education on the subject of mouth hygiene in the army and navy will impress upon enlisted men the importance of the dangers lurking in an unhealthy mouth, the functional inefficiency of a crippled grinding machine which cannot properly prepare food for the stomach, and the physically weakening influence of mouth neglect.

A large proportion of the eighty per cent. who were ignorant on the subject before they entered government service

will, on their return to civil life, continue to follow those habits of mouth cleanliness and care which they have been compelled to adopt, and this will necessitate regular visits to the dentist. A secondary result will come as the new idea is carried to several million American homes, where it will, in most instances, produce favorable results among other members of the family.

The present war furnishes, undoubtedly, the greatest opportunity that ever came to the dental profession to extend its field and its influence on public health.

Full advantage of the great opportunity will not be taken unless there are changes in Washington which cannot be reckoned on in the near future, but in spite of all obstacles, intentional or accidental, many millions of American people will be awakened during and after the war to a realization of the value of a healthy mouth, and with that awakening will come an unprecedented demand for dentists. To meet this demand the den

tal profession must recruit new members.

The practice of dentistry does not offer any great financial returns. If a man's chief ambition in life is the accumulation of wealth he will be wise to direct his efforts into other fields.

But monetary considerations are not matters of paramount importance to a man with a sufficiently broad view of life to seek, in his selection of a lifework, a field where he has easy opportunity to put more into the world than he takes out of it. If there is one great lesson to come from the present war it is a broadened knowledge among men of the "blessings of service."

Dentistry offers to the young man whose talents run somewhat in the direction of mechanics and art, whose natural desires are toward doing with his own hands the things that he plans, and who will appreciate a field ripe with opportunities for public service, an ideal vocation.

158 NEWBURY ST.

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"Radiolucency of Chloro-percha in the Radiograph."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DENTAL COSMOS:

Sir, I desire to reply to the communication by Dr. Kells in the July issue of the DENTAL COSMOS,

I thoroughly respect the opinions and work of Dr. Kells and others who have disagreed with me in my previous findings as to the radiolucency of chloropercha, and for that reason I have persisted in my laboratory experiments to find out wherein the difference existed.

I believe I have solved the problem, and will here so explain the result of my work that it will show we have all been right, yet there was one feature of the work that all of us have not known.

We will all agree that the reason for gutta-percha casting a more dense shadow than the tooth substance is due to the presence of lead oxid (PbO) in ordinary gutta-percha base-plate. This material averages about 25 to 30 per cent. of the different specimens I have examined.

I have made fresh chloroform solutions of gutta-percha base-plate, and found that the large root-canals filled as full as possible with the solution would not show in the radiograph more dense than the tooth substance. When further fillings were made from this same mix it would radiograph clearly, and continue to do so ever after.

I shall not take up your space by detailing the work necessary to prove the result, but give it to you briefly.

When the gutta-percha clippings are added to chloroform the chloroform removes from the base-plate the rubber

content, allowing the lead to precipitate to the bottom of the bottle. If this is not thoroughly shaken together the lead content is so low that the resulting solution will not show more dense than the root of the tooth. If this bottle is thoroughly shaken the lead is incorporated in the mixture to such an extent that the major portion will remain in suspense. becoming a part of each root-filling. It is then possible to get a sufficient amount in the canal to make it appear filled.

Some of my co-workers in the United States have gained the idea that I think it possible to fill a root-canal with chloropercha. On the contrary, I have proved it to be entirely impossible.

Chloro-percha when mixed to a consistence possible of introduction into a canal shrinks 12/22, therefore a rootcanal filled with this solution is only 10/22, or less than one-half, filled.

I therefore take the position that no root-canal has ever been one-half filled as to bulk and space in that portion wherein the gutta-percha point did not reach.

The reason why we have had partial success with this filling in the past is twofold: First, the tendency of chloropercha to bridge at the apex, leaving the openings caused by shrinkage farther down the canal, and second, the few cases wherein aseptic conditions have been obtained and maintained in spite of the defective chloro-percha fillings. Yours truly,

W. CLYDE DAVIS. LINCOLN, NEBR., July 23, 1918.

PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES

Dental Society of the State of New York.

Fiftieth Annual Meeting, held at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., June 13-15, 1918.

THE fiftieth annual meeting of the Dental Society of the State of New York was held in the Casino, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., on June 13, 14, and 15, 1918.

THURSDAY-Morning Session.

The meeting was called to order by the president, Dr. Amos C. Rich of Saratoga, at 11 o'clock.

The living past presidents and Fellows of the society occupied seats on the platform.

Rev. PETER A. MACDONALD invoked divine blessings on the deliberations of the society.

In the unavoidable absence of the mayor, Judge MCKELVIE of Saratoga welcomed the society to Saratoga Springs.

Dr. A. M. WRIGHT, Troy, N. Y., responded to the address of welcome on behalf of the society.

The vice-president, Dr. H. L. Wheeler, then took the chair, while President Rich read his annual address, as follows:

President's Address.

By AMOS C. RICH, D.D.S., Saratoga Springs.

OUR FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY.

Fifty years have passed, and the Dental Society of the State of New York stands as a monument to the memory of those devoted and loyal members of the

profession who believed and worked to have it legally recognized as a profession. Among those who were active in preparation of the law, and who afterward became first president of the society, was Amos Westcott; singularly the name Amos is attached to that of the fiftieth

president, but history will be unable to find any other parallel, because our first president, Amos Westcott of Syracuse, was a man renowned in his day and generation, being the man who discovered cohesive gold and the use of plaster for an impression of the mouth, thereby contributing to both operative and prosthetic dentistry. And it would seem that he was selected by the gods of destiny, as after events have proved and history hath recorded. He led and worked with a band of devoted and faithful workers, who builded the state edifice of Dentistry so well that it has stood the test of time. It seems to me superfluous that the record of our profession and of our society since its formation should be recorded in the President's address, because we shall be edified by a regularly appointed historian who is able and capable of making such a record. And further, we shall be permitted to listen to a prophet who may tell of what he can see in the future years before us as a profession.

In all probability few if any of those present at the formation thought of an anniversary meeting, much less a fiftieth celebration. But, ladies and gentlemen, we have with us today some who were

present at the birth of our society and have lived to see our profession attain its rightful status, and our society and state dental law become a criterion for others.

THE DENTAL PROFESSION AND THE WAR.

Since our last annual meeting we have a better knowledge concerning war and its awful frightfulness. We have been called upon to get closer to humanity and to help save it from becoming bestial, and before this war is over we shall be called upon to sacrifice much for humanity, victory, and peace. All in our professional work can help make men fit to fight that life, love, and liberty may prevail. Each and every one of us may and should do his part. Some may go to the battle front, others to the camp front, others to the office front, and others can buy bonds and help our boys, Uncle Sam, and our gallant allies win the war. It is because of humanity and what we do for it that we are recognized as a profession. Our

professional edifice has for its foundation humanity, otherwise we should be merely artificers or mechanicians; therefore we should do much for humanity, especially at this time, when there is such need of our services to make those who go to the front fit to do their bit. It is not enough to buy bonds of Uncle Sam; that is a mere loan, and the best investment in the world. We who stay at home, whatever the cause, must do more, we must sacrifice in some way that we may be truly patriotic. If we cannot go to the front the least we can do professionally is to sacrifice our time and fees to make someone else fit by our skill. Then shall we feel true consciousness of having done real service for the flag we all love.

When the history of the war is written. dentistry will be given due credit because we helped to make our fighting forces fit to face the enemy. History will show the unselfish purpose of our profession to serve humanity. That record will be one of glorious achievement, in restoring to friends and loved ones those who in fighting for liberty and democracy have been

horribly maimed and disfigured. Such scientific skill and prosthetic handiwork by dental surgeons and prosthetic artists has never previously been known or thought possible. Wonderful restorative work has been accomplished in conjunction with the plastic surgeons of the medical fraternity. It is manifest in the light of happenings of these days (quoting our lamented Dr. S. G. Perry, "In the fulfilment of our destiny, which is to be one of the most blessed because one of the most useful callings on earth") that a universal service must in the near future be an accomplished fact. As a nation we cannot go on in our present ways, knowing, as we do now, that we are not producing citizens physically nor mentally fit to fight for our rights. We face the failure side of our democracy as well as the other. We must provide ways and means to eliminate such failure. Our promiscuous population requires that drastic methods be employed to produce national and man power to protect our country, our flag, and our homes. We must not hereafter be content to ignore our failures because we are happy and prosperous as a nation. As physically perfect man power makes for victory and peace, so must the members of the fraternity of the healing art work to produce it, through universal service to humanity. Our citizens who are ignorant must be educated, that they may properly care for themselves and their families. In sequence it follows that those who are unfit to win their way, or fight to protect their country must be made so, then shall our country be better able to protect itself from those who would destroy us. Then may we eliminate disease, poverty, crime and aristocracy.

THE NEW DENTAL LAW.

The new dental law is working well, and thoroughly indicates the judgment of those responsible for its enactment. Many misgivings and much earnest solicitude was indulged in by some of our foremost thinkers concerning the provision which established dental hygienists. There is today much, and later must be more, gratification to us all that the

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