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She appeared to be in good health; said she was almost distracted

with toothache; was afraid to take chloroform; was afraid as of death

without it. I said the pain would be only momentary, and would not kill

her. I extracted the tooth, and she fainted. My usual remedy in such

cases was hartshorn and cold water. Through mistake, I took up a vial

of the Essence of Gaultheria, poured a little on a handkerchief, held

it to her nose, and was surprised to see how quickly she recovered

consciousness. This prompted me to experiment with it. I concluded that

if it was a good restorative, it might be a useful preventative.

I soon had a chance to test it. A lady called to have an ulcerated

tooth extracted. She was in delicate health: face swollen, hands cold.

She said she would like to take chloroform, but her physician said she

must not take it; she knew she would faint without it. I told her I

thought that could be prevented. I took a doily, folded it small, and

poured about a teaspoonful of the essence on it. I told her to inhale

through her nose, and exhale through her mouth. She continued this

until her brain was pretty well stimulated, and the tooth extracted.

She showed no signs of syncopy, and could hold a glass of water as

still as I could. I have not had any one to faint away in my office

since.

In the Spring of 1874, a lady, aged about sixty, came to consult me.

She said that her teeth were so bad she could not eat any ordinary

food; had disease of the lungs; was forbidden to take chloroform.

After an examination, I told her she had eight teeth in the upper jaw

that could not possibly be made useful, and she had better have them

extracted. She said she had never had one extracted without fainting

dead away. She could not think of having more than one out at a time.

Her temperament, nervous sanguine, emaciated hands cold, pulse very

feeble. I told her if she would follow my directions I would take

them all out and she would not mind it more than one, and guaranteed

she could not faint if she tried. I explained the effect of the

wintergreen, and said it would do no more harm than a glass of good

wine. I administered the article, as before described, until her face

flushed, tears ran down her cheeks, then extracted the eighth teeth

without her closing her mouth. She asked if they were all out, and I

said yes. She said, "Is it possible?" I gave her a glass of water. It

did not show the least tremor of the nerves. She left, giving me many

thanks, saying that she felt much better than when she came into the

office.

I could relate many more similar cases, but do not deem it necessary.

My object is to show what may sometimes be done to advantage in cases

of syncopy, and also the means of preventing it while performing a

painful operation.

As before said, the brain is the seat of all sensation; and our

patients, no matter how nervous they are, if the brain is properly

stimulated, cannot faint--caused by the extraction of teeth. When my

patients are known to be pregnant, I always use the stimulant above

described before performing any painful operation; it always prevents

any severe shock of the nervous system when in this condition. If any

one wishes to know how to prepare the Essence, it is as follows: To one

pint of alcohol add one ounce of the Oil of Gaultheria, commonly called

Wintergreen. Shake it well and it is fit for use.

In passing from a conscious to an unconscious state, all the

Clairvoyants I have questioned on the subject say it is affected by

a change of polarity of the sensatory organs, and the principle is

the same whether caused by animal magnetism, syncopy or an?sthetic

agents, and if only the voluntary organs are affected thereby, there

is no danger to life, but if polarity in the involuntary is reversed,

the heart ceases to beat and death is instantly the result. I was the

first in this city to administer ether for the purpose of extracting

teeth without pain. In a few cases it developed paroxysms of hysteria;

otherwise no harm was done. I have administered ether, chloroform and

gas to over two thousand persons. With chloroform, I had three cases

that barely escaped death in my chair; with gas, some after deleterious

effects followed in two cases.

Admitting man's physical organization to be a magnetic machine, the

deaths that have occurred are easily explained, when caused by these

powerful drugs. The voluntary organs are under the control of the will,

and during our waking hours there is a constant draft on our magnetic

supply; it is best recuperated by sleep, when the will is at rest.

The involuntary organs do not sleep until death ends our earth life.

We can readily understand that if by any cause polarity in the two

large poles in the cerebrum are reversed, the gateway by which we gain

a knowledge of things about us is closed so perfectly that physical

sensation is impossible. On the other hand, if the equilibrium between

the two large poles in the cerebellum are not well balanced, just

in this proportion some kind of ailment is the result. Let us not

forget that the will has no control over these poles, and all medicine

that does not beneficially act on them is non-curative. Now, just in

proportion as an?sthetic agents disturb their equilibrium, they are

dangerous, it makes no difference whether polarity is reversed or

destroyed; in either case the principle of life can no longer act on

the nerves by means of its intermediate; the heart ceases to beat,

and restoration is impossible. Chloroform is more easily administered

than ether or gas, and most convenient when the patient cannot come

to the office; but we should remember that many deaths have occurred

when given for the purpose of extracting teeth, and that, too, when

least expected. The public mind is more horrified at one death in the

dentist's office than twenty caused by a railroad smash-up. We have now

the means that will stimulate the nerves, greatly mitigate the pain and

not endanger either life or health.

I have long desired a perfectly safe an?sthetic that can be

administered no matter what the condition of the patient. I am now

creditably informed that Dr. Mayo, of Boston, some eighteen months ago,

by various experiments, produced a compound article that satisfied

him was harmless. He would not put it on the market until it had been

thoroughly tested by both dentists and surgeons. All who tested its

effect and efficiency testified to its great superiority over all other

known an?sthetics for dental and minor surgical operations. It is

now only a few months since he made arrangements for its manufacture

and appliances, and put it on the market. He has named it Mayo's

Vegetable Vapor An?sthetic. I have been using it for extracting teeth

very successfully. The nitrous oxide causes the patient, when fully

under its influence, to have very like the appearance of a corpse. The

action of this new an?sthetic does not act on the vital organs, and the

patient appears like one in a natural sleep, and, in my opinion, is

perfectly safe and without danger to life or health.

Our patients come to us for either a preventative or curative

treatment. As before said, we are brought face to face with almost

every conceivable condition of the nervous system, and the more true

knowledge we have of it the better are we able to satisfactorily manage

them. Some come in a very excitable, and some in a very depressed

state. We need means to quiet the former and stimulate the latter.

Again. To be fully entitled to the name of Scientific, we must know

something of the laws of life, in order that we may obey them and fight

life's battles manfully--doing justice to others and with credit to

ourselves. Life, in itself, is not creatable, but given to us with

power to properly use or abuse, the end being the creation of the

finite mind. I have explained above the means by which it acts on

matter, but as a further illustration, let me say, you drop an article

on the floor, gravitation holds it there; you desire to pick it up, how

can you do it; if you have sufficient will-power it will act on the

magnetic element, this on the nerves, these on the muscles. You stoop

down and pick it up, and probably not one in ten thousand have a single

thought about the necessary means by which you are enabled to do so, so

little do we reflect about causative principles involved in what we do.

So far as our voluntary organs are concerned they may be compared to

a locomotive engine. They are both useless if the motive power is

wanting. To make the engine useful, steam must be generated by means

of fire and water; and to make our voluntary organs useful, animal

magnetism must be generated by means of life and the atmospheres. The

engineer controls the steam power, and human will controls the magnetic

power, and when properly applied, if the machine is in good order,

locomotion is the result in both cases. I will only add, the steam

acts on the piston heads and causes the crank to move and the wheels

to rotate. Magnetism acts on the nerves, then on the muscles, and

man moves in any direction he chooses. A dentist with a strong will,

if he uses the proper means, can more easily and favorably impress

his nervous patient than one with a weak will, and the reason is, he

imparts more of his animal magnetism, which has a stimulating effect on

the nerves of his patient. There is a magnetic sphere emanating from

both man and beast, particularly when in motion. Were it not so, no dog

could follow their tracks successfully. All pain is the result of an

obstruction of a normal flow of the magnetic current, whether caused by

disease or otherwise.

Arsenic, applied to the nerve of a tooth, destroys its polarity, and

applied to any other nerve it is no longer capable of being actuated

by the magnetic current, without which there can be no sensation, and

death is the result. Physical endurance depends largely on the mind and

the state of the nervous system. The difference in individuals to bear

pain is marvelous; some one can have a tooth extracted and seem to care

but little about it, while others, without the use of a preventative,

appear to suffer intensely, and in some cases the operation causes

syncopy.

In conclusion allow me to say, a vast field lies before us, and if

cultivated properly this Society will in due time reap a rich harvest,

the benefits of which cannot now be estimated.

The grand distinction between mind and matter may be seen thus: If we

give any physical object to another, we part with it, but if we give a

new idea on any subject, we do not part with it, but in so doing its

boundaries are enlarged in our minds.

The space occupied in briefly presenting my views on the subject I

have chosen is greater than I at first intended, but the fundamental

principles which underlie everything with which we have to do, and

the importance of fully understanding them, is my only apology for

occupying so much of your time.--_Dental Luminary._

ARTICLE II.

PULPLESS TEETH.

BY DR. WILSON, OF BURLINGTON, MEMBER OF THE FACULTY OF THE DENTAL

DEPARTMENT OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY.

[Extracts of a paper read before the Iowa Dental Association at its

late annual meeting.]

A pulpless tooth is not necessarily a dead tooth, but a dead tooth is,

of course, a pulpless tooth. The adjectives "pulpless" and "dead" are

not, therefore, synonymous, although frequently so used, especially

by medical writers. Let us note the marked distinction between the

two. A pulpless tooth may be a part of the living organism--a dead

tooth has its nutritive supply entirely cut off, and it is in every

sense a foreign body--it is dead and inert. The former may be restored

to health and usefulness--the latter should always be condemned as a

nuisance that cannot be abated without the use of the forceps. * * * *

Having thus briefly called attention to the fact that the dentine and

cementine derive their vitality from independent sources--that the life

of the one is not dependent upon the life of the other--that a pulpless

tooth is not necessarily a dead tooth--we are prepared to consider,

understandingly, the subject of this paper. It may, however, seem like

presumption on the part of the writer, in thus offering the foregoing

to an intelligent body of dentists, when every student of dentistry at

the close of his junior year should fully understand the facts above

stated. But I am led to a consideration of this subject from articles

entitled, "Dead Teeth in the Jaws," that have appeared, from time to

time, during the last two years, in the New York _Medical Record_, and

as those articles come from high sources in the medical profession,

they deserve more than passing notice. The able editor of that journal,

and Dr. Samuel Sexton, a distinguished oculist and aurist of New York

City, being the principal writers referred to.

The _Medical Record_ of October 4, 1884, contains a report from the

aural service of Dr. Sexton, entitled, "Pain in the Ears due to

Irritation in the Jaws." He describes a number of cases of otalgia in

which he found the lesion to be in diseased teeth.

He goes on to say that "since dentistry had become such a popular

business, and diseased teeth had been so carefully retained in the

jaws, nervous diseases about the head were becoming alarmingly common."

The same number of the above journal contained an editorial on "Dead

Teeth in the Jaws," which read as follows: "Perhaps the time is near at

hand when medical men should be themselves better informed concerning

diseases of the jaws and mouth, rather than refer the ailments of this

region to individuals whose limited knowledge of medicine does not

prevent them from 'treating' dead teeth long after their presence in

the jaws has given rise to alveolar abscesses and neuralgias more or

less painful. It would not be strange if in the course of events, the

day would soon come when all teeth without pulps, and hence in process