was not claimed that his father cut the first one. Then it was all a mistake about the swimming match. His father must have got George Washington mixed up with somebody else. Anyhow, the whole subject was out of order. He would move that his father be allowed to retire unassisted, while an extra collection was being taken up.

At this suggestion the Society immediately resolved itself into a committee of the whole, and when the uproar subsided it was discovered that the Harrises, Sr. and Jr. had disappeared, together with ten feet of the stair banister. The candles having gone out, and no matches being procurable, the meeting informally adjourned.

EXTRACTION EXTRAORDINARY.

Several years ago when the writer was practising in central Ill., a farmer's daughter aged about seventeen years, came into the of fice complaining of an aching central incisor. A very small filling of Wood's metal was discovered in the mesial approximal surface. A bicuspid root giving unmistakable evidence of being the source of offense, her persistent appeals to have the incisor extracted were denied. Whereupon, against the remonstrance of the writer, the girl secured a saddler's thread, and having made a slip-noose, adjusted it to the tooth, stood before the glass in the writer's presence, and by persistent tugging for nearly an hour, finally extracted it. The tooth, a large one, was in perfectly healthy condition, and was firmly attached in its socket, no absorption of periosteum or process having taken place. The pulp was alive. The bicuspid root was submitted to the forceps a day or two later, all her efforts to extract it having failed.

THE Ohio State Dental Society, reorganized, will meet at Chillicothe on the last Wednesday of October, 1885, continuing in session three days. C. H. JAMES, Cin'ti, President. J. R. CALLAHAN, Hilisboro, Sec'y.

At the same time and place the Ohio Board of Dental Examiners will hold their annual session.

F. H. RehwinkEL, Sec'y, Chillicothe, O.

SALUTATORY.

The use of this word "salutatory"-an address of welcome-in an editorial introduction of a new journal, would seem to involve an inversion of ideas. What the editor wants in this instance, is a welcome which he solicits from the profession in behalf of this journal. We have no very lengthy editorial to write. Our aim shall be to make a journal which will be looked for from month to month with pleasure. Exactly how that is to be accomplished is a question involving for its satisfactory answer observation and study of the prevailing popular taste. The characters of the various dental journals published vary to suit a variety of tastes. One is devoted to the discussion of subjects pertaining exclusively to dentistry; another trenches upon the domain of general medicine; a third includes perhaps both of these fields and superadds a flavoring of general literature not altogether foreign to these abovenamed subjects. Our further aim shall be to give the dental department of this journal a character of individuality. The editor of a daily news journal has almost unlimited resources, when it comes to the choice of extracts from exchanges, while the editor of a medical or dental journal is limited to a few original articles, obtained oftentimes as the result of personal solicitation, or in default of these, he culls from other sources what he may reasonably suppose will appear contemporaneously in two or three other journals. In this respect the dental editor is at a disadvantage. Still, there remains much to be written on dental subjects, notwithstanding it would seem the field has been thoroughly tilled. Study and research are constantly developing useful discoveries, and while it cannot be expected that every interesting writer is capable of adding any considerable amount to the permanent literature of the profession, yet it cannot be denied that a contribution must be very poor indeed to be of no value. So please assist the journal with your contributions, and let its readers judge of their merits.

THE Ohio Dental College opens its fall session on Oct. 8, 1885. This old-established school offers to students a course of lectures carefully selected and prepared to instruct in branches having a practical significance and relationship to actual practice in dentistry. The alumni of this institution include in its list the names of many prominent men, some of them of world-wide reputation. For years the annual attendance has been steadily increasing. The college is under the management of earnest, wide-awake

men.

THE PROPER MANAGEMENT OF A DENTAL

CONVENTION.

After some observation and reflection, we have come to the conclusion that the success of a dental convention is determined largely by the character of the opening session. It is the first half-day that tells, and that gives tone to the subsequent sessions. Let anyone consider the following description of a dental meeting, and see whether he gathers from it symptoms of failure in all that might be supposed to follow. The members assemble at the appointed place an hour or more after the set time of meeting. After considerable delay, some one suggests to the Chairman that time is passing, and that it might not be out of place to call the meeting to order. The Chairman thereupon takes his seat with an air of diffidence, and raps for order, which he finally secures, but not without repeated rappings and appeals.

The secretary begins to read his notes, and is interrupted by three or four members who enter the hall laughing and talking rather noisily, and who appear quite taken aback at finding the meeting already under way. The reading being finished, the chairman holds a whispered consultation with the secretary, looks anxiously over the assembly, and appears to be at a loss to know exactly what is expected of him in his official capacity. There is much delay in hunting up the chairmen of committees, and more delay in getting their reports, and much lingering along in a helpless sort of way, until finally the order of general business is dispatched, and the first subject for discussion is announced. Then the chairman relapses into an apathetic condition, and a period of listless inactivity ensues, while the majority of members have an air of irresponsible spectators. Finally, Dr., who is always looked to for the opening speech, rises with visible reluctance, as if fearing that his voice had been too often heard,, and after some groping to get his bearings, makes an inspiring presentation of the subject.

Another period of silence, broken by an incoming member's tiptoeing across the hall to shake hands with friends. The secretary whispers to the chairman, who perhaps leaves the chair to whisper to one of the members, and for the time being the discussion is held in suspense. Suddenly a member who has been whispering not quite inaudibly behind a newspaper ever since the chairman first rapped for order, rises, hesitates a moment, and after

some difficuity in securing a hearing, announces his belief that he has nothing to present on the subject. Then he rambles on in an aimless way, constructing phrases, until he winds himself up in a tangle, and sits down, as if aware that what he has been saying gives color to his opening statement. Likely as not he makes an effective speech later on, when he has had time to tune up." He is followed by others who make short speeches, some to the point. and others quite foreign to the subject, and so on and so on, until some one moves the next subject.

Is this picture too highly colored? Admitting that it is, the faults portrayed are not always conspicuously absent. They might be easily abolished altogether, if members would attend to a few simple suggestions. In the first place, it is incumbent upon every member to be promptly present at the time appointed for meeting. Hand-shakings and greetings are perhaps not out of place even after the session has opened, but they should not be allowed to disturb the meeting. It must operate somewhat to divert attention from a speaker to have a member cross the floor ever SO carefully. It ought to be regarded as the height of indecorum for anyone to unfold a newspaper during discussions. Members should all the more use their own judgment and good sense in numerous small matters of etiquette like these, because they are not supposed to be under surveillance of the chairman as regards personal manners, like boys under the eyes of a schoolmaster. It is not his office to give lessons in manners. It is his office, however, to exercise absolute control of the assembly, to direct its proceedings according to rules and precedents, and to preserve order. Some chairmen proceed to discharge these duties very timidly, as if afraid of exceeding their privilèges. Such a chairman seems to forget that he is expected to use authority. He must not be possessed of the idea that humility requires of him to be somewhat lax and informal. That he occupies a position of exaltation should ever be present to his mind. The position cannot be sustained without some attention to formality and dignity. Some chairmen do well for two or three sessions, and then by relaxing vigilance, and falling into careless, indolent ways, allow the tone of the meeting to decline almost to demoralization long before the time. for final adjournment. It requires much It requires much tact to sustain interest and to prevent premature flagging; still, it can be done by setting. an example of interest in all that is going on, and by promptly attending to stragglers,

A few more words to members. In many instances we see speakers turn their backs to the chairman and address the assembly directly. It may not be out of place to remind such that usage requires that words intended for the mass of hearers should be directed to the chairman. There is some liberty allowed in addressing an inquiry to an opponent, but, as a general thing, the chair must be addressed. To interrupt a speaker and share the floor with him a minute or two, is a gross violation of the rules and customs of deliberative assemblies.

Finally, let no member who has at heart an interest in seeing a convention successful, retire from the assembly-room during a session without good reason. Nothing tends more to chill interest in a discussion than to have a member rise with an indifferent air, reach for his hat, and saunter out, leaving the door to slam behind him. Then the man with the new appliance, who passes it around for inspection during the heat of discussion, ought to know better. Those of us who go to the circus occasionally (to take the children) know how outraged a man feels when a fellow comes between him and the clown, just at the funniest part, and warns him that his opportunity is rapidly slipping away for buying a glass of "sparkling fountain, crystal stream, as-cold-as-ice-can-make-it' 'lemonade. Everything has its place, and the discussions ought to have a large place in our conventions, and nothing should be allowed to break in upon them.

HAVE you ever tried malleting for yourself with the plugger held in the left hand? With a little practice many cavities easily accessible may be rapidly filled. The practiced hand seldom makes a misstroke with the mallet, even though the operator's attention be absorbingly concentrated upon the filling, and the shaft of the plugger constantly shifts its direction. For delicacy of manipulation in filling pits and grooves we doubt whether anything quite equals the combined use of mallet and plugger in the operator's own hands. Careful discrimination in selecting cases must of course be used. In many instances this practice is inapplicable. The dam should be adjusted with regard to what is about to be undertaken, so that no doubling of the rubber into folds to impede a view of the cavity shall occur. The practice recommended years ago in a prize essay on "Adjusting the Coffer-Dam," is worthy every operator's attention. In that paper the writer directs that before punching holes in the rubber, it be stretched over the teeth, carefully noting where the dam-holder is to be attached, so as to leave no flaps or rolls to get into the way, and marking with a pencil the exact points where the holes are to be punched. The proper or improper use of the dam makes every difference in the matter of accessibility of the cavity.