Page 151 - My FlipBook

HISTOUY OF DENTAL 8UEGEEY 121

ness. * * * But wlioever perceived any appropriateness in calling that
portion of a tooth sunk in the alveolus and covered by the gum, a 'fang"?
* * * It is proper to call the tusks of a wild Ijoar or wolf, or the poison-
ous teeth of a serpent 'fangs'. The term root is certainly not inappropri-
ate in its signification, for like the root of a tree it is both a functional and
physical support. Like the root of a tree or plant, it is covered and ex-
cluded from external influence, but holds vital relationship with the parts
immediately surrounding and in contact with it. It is like the root of a
tree in supporting the body of the tooth in firm position against the power of
mastication, which tends to topple over or dislodge it. With much greater
propriety might we call the instruments with which the root of the tooth i«
e.xtracted, "fangs". * * * Not faiuj forceps, but fangcd forceps."
In 1879 Dr. Jonathan Taft published an article on "Dental Nomencla-
ture and Terminology," in which he says:
"The modifications of words should not be left subject to the whims and
caprices of the pedant and charlatan. All words, and especially the names
and terms, should be defined and established on such a basis as will give
them the greatest range of usefulness and the most enduring stability. The
misuse of words produces confused thouglit and ideas, and impairs the value
of language as a medium of communication. In medical literature a large
proportion of the distinctive names are taken unchanged from other languages,
generally from the Greek and Latin—definite languages so far as the form and
construction are concerned—sometimes falsely called "dead languages."
"In the "Cosmos"" of 1880, a letter by Dr. Eobert Arthur, of Baltimore,
concludes with these words:
"In scientific statements of descriptions, precision or exactness is of the
very first importance."'
W. Finley Thompson, of London, in 1881, so far as is shown by the
literature of the profession, was the first to systematize and place in tabular
form the names of carious cavities.
In the session of the American Dental Association, held in 1881, Dr.
Buckingham called attention to the lack of a proper dental nomenclature,
and to the fact that a speaker recently, at a meeting of the New York Odon-
tological Society, had described secondary dentin as one thing, another de-
scribed a different condition which lie also called secondary dentin, and
still another described a tiiird proposition as secondary dentin. He urged