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120 HISTOEY OF DENTAL SURGEKY

practitioners to design, the skilled hand of the manufacturer to produce and
the commercial enterprise of the legion of dental dealers to supply.

XOJIEXf'LA'rURE.
A profession has a common interest in the thought, aspiration and purpose
of action of all of its members; it forms a solidarity which should be unre-
strained by geographical boundaries or differences of vernacular. It requires
a language, terms belonging peculiarly to itself, that shall be understood
by all of its members and shall convey the same meaning to tliem wherever
they may be situated, or to whatever nation they may owe political allegiance.
Science and art belong to no race, no clime, no country. The evolutions made
by science, ajiplied and turned into use by art, are the heritage of the en-
tire human family.
To have a language or words that apply particularly to the ideas, or
things belonging exclusively to the dental profession, which shall convey
their meaning accurately to those to whom dental thought and dental practices
are particularly a concern, is a great conception. Great honor is due den-
tists of the United States who many years ago agitated and considered this
question. Tlicv built a strong foundation upon which names of discoveries,
new methods of practice and new inventions, can be, from time to time,
added and clearly expressed, upon a system of nomenclature evolved in this
country.
The need for uniform words to express the same idea, or to describe the
same subject or thing, began to be apparent to the dental profession about
fifty years ago. The birth and expansion of a special literature demon-
strated the paucity existing in a special vocabula-ry. This want or deficiency
became particularly noticeable when dentists from various sections of our
country, and from different lands, intermingled and debated in professional
gatherings. The diversity of expressions or words used in tlie attempt to
convey the same thought or descrilie the same thing in our journalistic lit-
erature, was so confusing that a desire to establish a professional nomencla-
ture sprang into existence.
In 181)1:, in an article on "Dental Nomenclature," Dr. L. G. Ingersoll
of Keokuk, Iowa, uses these words:
'Tn the development of science new words and technical words are a
necessity for obvious reasons, but the greatest caution is needed in introduc-
ing them, so as neither to obscure the jueaning, nor convey a wrong meaning.
In our dental nomenclature we have words full of appropriate expressive-