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AMALGAM. 299

AMALGAM.

HISTORICAL.

ILLUSTRATIONS: FIGURES 399-407.
AMALGAM is a composition of mercury with another metal,
.~oF mercury with an alloy composed of two or more metals,
which is made at ordinary temperature by rubbing the mercury
with finely divided particles of the metal or alloy.
Amalgam seems to have been known to chemists and has
had a limited use in the arts for many years. Its use as a mate-
rial for filling teeth seems to have begun early in the last cen-
tury, possibly earlier. The precise date, and the person who
first used it, are uncertain.
Its use at first seems to have been confined to those regarded
as charlatans by persons who wrote books, and, as there were
neither dental societies where such matters were discussed, nor
dental journals, our knowledge of it is derived solely from some
of the older books and the memory of men who were in practice
at the beginning of the publication of dental journal literature
about 1839. At that time, a considerable use of amalgam was
being made by dentists, largely by the itinerants, or men who had
no settled abode, but wandered through the country or from town
to town. Some of these proved to be men of more than ordinary
natural abilitj^ and developed into strong professional men. It
is lai'gely from the memory of such men that the earliest history
of the use of amalgam in filling teeth is derived. The personnel
of this history is now unimijortant.
The first amalgam used was obtained by filing silver coins
and rubbing these filings with mercury. It was very diffi-
cult to amalgamate, made a very harsh mass, and hardened
very slowly, but finally became very hard. Some of the fillings
made of it did enough toward protecting teeth from decay to
attract the attention of many of the better men of the time.
Yet most of this work was about as good as nothing, and much
of it actually harmful. The resialt was a very sharp division
on the question of the use of amalgam. Many good men regarded
all who made use of it as quacks of the worst sort and refused