Editorial, Etc.

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, DENTAL DEPARTMENTANNUAL COMMENCEMENT FOR 1887.-The classes in this Dental Department have become so large that separate commencements will hereafter be held; that for 1887, will take place on the 16th day of March next at the Academy of Music, Baltimore City.

The custom heretofore has been to hold the commence. ments of the Medical and Dental Departments of the Univer sity of Maryland at the same time and place. But the Graduates of the Dental Department will be so many this year that it becomes necessary to hold a separate commencement for each Department-namely, Medicine, Law and Dentistry.

The present graduating class is the largest ever known in this section of the country; and the same may be said of the matriculates for the present session of 1886-87. The many friends of the University of Maryland will be pleased at this announcement of the continued and unprecedented success of its Dental Department from its organization, which is an evidence of the reputation it sustains throughout the civilized world.

THE PASTEUR METHODS-Dr. Christopher Johnston read before the Baltimore Academy of Medicine a paper on his recent visit to Pasteur's dispensary and laboratory in Paris. Many foreign doctors were present at Pasteur's headquarters, eager observers, and there was also a numerous attendance of persons bitten by supposed rabid animals. Dr. Johnston said that recently bitten persons were inoculated with a thin pulp, made by crushing, a portion of a dried spinal cord, ten days old, from a rabbit dead of rabies or hydrophobia. On the second day a ninth-day cord was employed, on the third day an eighth-day cord, and so on until the fresh cord of the pre

ceding day was brought into requisition. Eighty-four patients were treated by the above method the day of Dr. Johnston's visit. But 351 persons were bitten last year in France by rabietic animals, yet M. Pasteur treated 1,700. The excess came from other countries. Rabbits die in six days when inoculated. They are inoculated from the brain of a rabbit which died of hydrophobia, while Pasteur's patients are inoculated from the lower part of the same rabbit's spinal column. As to the practical working of the system it was objected by Dr. Johnston that enough has not been done to demand the acceptance of Pasteur's theory. Time and the future labors of Pasteur and others must develop the truth that may reside in Pasteur's plan of treatment. Dr. Von Frisch, of Vienna, and Pasteur both fully inoculated animals, the former rabbits and the latter dogs, and then attempted their cure. All of Von Frisch's rabbits died, and Pasteur had only "a partial success." Pasteur objects to the slow method of Von Frisch, and urges rapid and repeated vaccinations, but his own success was but "partial”.

Monthly Summary.

FATAL RESULT OF PEROXIDE OF HYDROGEN INJECTIONS. --A Norwegian surgeon, Dr. Laache, has reported a case in which a fatal result followed an injection of peroxide of hydrogen into the pleural cavity. The patient was a man 28 years of age, who had had a portion of the ninth and tenth ribs resected, for empyema. The operation had been successful and the wound progressed favorably, and two months after the operation there remained only a fistula about an inch and a half long. In order to hasten the healing of this, hypodermic injections of a 3 per cent. solution of peroxide of hydrogen were resorted to, as this method of treatment had given very satisfactory results in two somewhat similar cases in which it

had been tried. Six injections, each containing 0,8 cubic centimetre of the solution, were administered without any particular effect. At the seventh however, the patient complained of pain and faintness, the pulse failed, the respiration became oppressed, clonic contractions occurred in the right arm, the head turned to the left, the jaws became tightly set, the face became cyanotic, and the patient died in ten minutes. The necropsy, which was not made till forty-eight hours after death, revealed nothing very striking. The heart was dilated, and contained liquid blood without air bubbles; some ecchymoses were found in the parts of the left lung, which were adherent to the chest walls. In the fourth ventricle of the brain an ecchymosis the size of a pin's head was seen. A number of air bubbles were present in the blood of the hepatic veins, and some were seen on cutting into the spleen and kidneys. The cause of death was therefore by no means clear. Dr. Laache suggests that it may have been the small extravasation in the fourth ventricle or shock. Dr. Wulfsberg, who took part in the discussion on the case at the Christiania Medical Society, thought it was probably due to the introduction of the drug into the circulation. He thought that the strength of the blood current might have carried the peroxide, if introduced into a vein, through the right heart and lungs almost unchanged, but that afterwards more oxygen might have been disengaged than the blood could absorb, and bubbles were thus produced, which may have been the immediate cause of death. Where animals have been subjected to injections of air into the veins bubbles are not always found in the blood. In these cases Dr. Wulfsberg thinks that death has been due to paralysis of the heart, for when examinations have been made immediately after death bubbles have been found in the coronary arteries. As so long a time had elapsed before the necropsy in Dr. Laache's case, these might have been absorbed.-London Lancet.

HOW TO BECOME A GOOD DENTIST.-Dr. B. H. Teague. -After two years of close application under a conscientious and painstaking preceptor, the student is then ready to enter the dental department of a university. The intervening time

between the winter sessions should again be spent under the supervision of the preceptor; and after graduation a year with him as an assistant, will be of much benefit to the newly fledged dental doctor.

It has been my observation that the graduate who has not availed himself of the benefits of a private tutor, may be skillful after a manner with cohesive gold, may know little of noncohesive gold, is sure to dislike amalgam and other plastics, and is a very indifferent plate-workman-even with rubber. He is a bungler at such fine prosthetic dentistry as pivoting, cap-crowning, and bridge-work. In fact, is almost an ignoramus, practically, in all that relates to artistic metal work. Often I have had said to me, "Why, Doctor, they never taught me that at college," The colleges cannot demonstrate everything. In all probability, the different phases of practice are described in the lectures; but the most interesting and special practice is not practically taught the student, unless occasionally by some dentist invited to give a clinic. The patients who are served at the college infirmaries are generally poor, and do not demand anything more than either simple operative or mechanical dentistry. The scope is therefore limited as compared with the daily routine of a busy dentist. A graduate who has received instruction only within the walls of a college should place himself with a well-established dentist as an assistant. The time spent will not be thrown away. A practical knowledge will be thus gained to help him over many of the rough and troublesome obstacles in practice. He will better satisfy himself and more efficiently serve his patrons, and receive the greater pecuniary return from future practice.—Ex,

IN FILLING PROXIMAL CAVITIES, should the teeth be wedged previous to filling, or cut apart and permanent separations made? Which plan will be likely to result in the most good, both as to durability and comfort to patient? I should say as a general rule it is best to wedge the teeth rather than cut spaces, and yet many times the latter seems the best plan to adopt. I consider this one of the most difficult questions to decide in dental practice, and one requiring much thought

and good judgment. The shape of the teeth, the way they antagonize, the tendency for caries to recur, the character and shape of the gums, the age of the patient, and care taken of the teeth, must all be taken into account. As a general rule, teeth that are wide at the grinding surfaces and small at the necks should not be cut apart, because the wide space at the gums interferes with mastication. If the gums and alveolus are heavy, there is apt to be a pocket formed, which adds greatly to the chance of caries recurring, besides giving discomfort to the patient in chewing, if permanent spaces are made through to the gums.

If the occlusion is such that when spaces are cut the teeth will soon crowd together again, cutting apart is generally bad practice; or if the patient is quite young, so that the teeth scarcely occupy their natural positions, cutting apart is hardly justifiable. On the other hand, where there is much tendency to caries with a lack of care on the part of the patient, contouring is not good practice, because the time and exhaustive labor required for such operations are almost sure to be rewarded by a quick recurrence of caries. Permanent separating is then almost the only thing left. So that no special rule can be given, but each case must be left to the careful study and good judgment of the operator. Cleanliness is also very important Till we get patients to doing their part in taking proper care of the teeth, it is of but little use to try to make permanent operations, This is especially true with regard to children. I have repeatedly sent children home and set another time for them to come on purpose to examine and show them where they fail in this particular. It is said that the pulp-capping practice has changed. I have seen no reason for changing my practice in this particular. I cap pulps quite as frequently as I ever did, have quite as much faith in it, and believe any practitioner who does not cap pulps falls far short of his duty.-Dr. J. N. Crouse.

PERSONAL CLEANLINESS AND UNPLEASANT ODORS, AND DISEASE. Sometime since, referring to personal offensive odors, we laid stress on keeping the entire body clean, of hav