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most effectual mode it is of perpetuating the business of the
dentist. I am now speaking of filing the teeth when they are
sound, in order to separate them. There are states of the
teeth, as when caries has commenced at their edges, in which
it becomes our duty to use the file ; and if we attend to the
preceding directions, as respects the healthy state of the
mouth, teeth, &c. and perform the operation judiciously, and
oblige our patients to observe the most perfect cleanliness of
their teeth ever after, we shall be able to arrest the progress
of the caries. Whether to remove decay, or separate the
teeth, the most perfect cleanliness must be observed by the
patient ever after the operation, and if he does, filed teeth
may never decay so long as kept clean. Many persons nev-
er keep their teeth clean, but suffer them to be dirty ; in
these, extraction, as before mentioned, is altogether better
than to file their teeth. It is time, it may be said, that it is
neither the fault of the operator or of the operation, if the
patients do not keep their teeth clean. I admit it, yet still it
is the duty of the surgeon-dentist to perform those opera-
tions, if possible, which shall leave the teeth as little suscep-
tible to injury as may be, even if his patients are negligent,
and do not endeavour to preserve their teeth. It was ob-
served by Mr. Hunter,* that " we seldom or never see
any person whose teeth begin to rot after the age of fifty years."
This is to a certian extent true ; but not in all cases, as they
decay, in some instances, after that period. But the teeth of
the young are much more irritable, and the enamel is weak-
er, than in old persons ; consequently, caries in the young is
more readily excited, and proceeds with much greater rapidity
than in persons of advanced age. Caries, as I have before
observed, appears to proceed and be excited in a ratio nearly,

* See Hunter, Part II. page 141.