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HISTOKY OF DENTAL SIIEGEEY 111 ;

EEMINISCEXCES OF EAKLY DENTAL SCIENCE.
Dr. Curtis S. Chittenden of Hamilton, Ontario, published his reminis-
cences of fifty years ago in the "British Journal of Dental Sciences" in 1886,
As a boy ten years of age he visited Burlington, Vt., in company with his
father, and noticed in a door plate of a house, "0. H. Saxton, Dentist." He
asked his father what that meant, and learned that a dentist was a man who
treats people's teeth, and that it M'as a very lucrative business. Two 3'ears later,
in 1837, he visited an older brother at Xunda, N. Y., who was a dentist,
and whom he saw using teeth made out of calves' teeth as substitutes in the
mouths of his patients—and who also inserted teeth carved from a hippopo-
tamus tusk— by means of gold wires fastened around the natural teeth.
His brother showed his father some mineral teeth which he thought might
possibly supplant those nuide from the teeth of animals.
In 1846, upon the advice of his brother, he took up the study of den-
tistry with him. The studying consisted of watching the manipulations in
the operating room and laboratory, with such explanations as his brother
might be disposed to give him. The only book that was available for study
was one of the original editions of ''Harris' Practice." The equipment of
the dental office was exceedingly meagre. A lathe was superfluous in those
days. Teeth were ground upon a small grinding stone like that used for
the sharpening of knives, and the polishing of plates was done by hand with
pencils and sticks dipped in oil and emery.
Dr. Chittenden informs us that when Dr. S. P. Ilullihen of Wheeling,
Va., presented his system for treating exposed pulps, it was named ''Iihizod-
ontryphy." He also tells us that Dr. S. P. Miller of Worcester, Mass., dis-
co\ered or invented this identical operation, which in Boston they called
"neurhanuixis." AVIiile l)r. Ilullihen "liiizodontryphied,'' Dr. Miller "neur-
hamaxied'' nerves for a year or two, and there was a lively war between
the friends of Ilullihen and the partisans of Miller.
This probably was one of the causes that numy years later produced the
establishment and introduction of national dental nomenclature.

DENTAL FEES.
The fee in country towns for an upper or lower set on gold was $50.00
on silver half of the same, for filling with gold, 75 cents, and for tin,
37I/0 cents. In the larger cities higher fees were charged.
In 1874 the Dental Cosmos published a letter from Dr. George H. Chance