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HISTOKY OF DEXTAL SURGERY 175
"Amalgam hegan to be n^^cd for lilling teeth early in the last century.
Who first introduced it is uncertain. At this time there were no dental societies
or dental journals, and books or the memories of the older practitioners are our
only sources of information. The authors of such books as make any mention
of amalgam regarded those who used it as charlatans. By the time the first
DE. GEEENE VAEDIMAN BLACK.
societies were organized and tlie first dental journal published, about 1838-40,
amalgam was considernlily used, but (•hiofl}^ by itinerants, and it was regarded
with great disfavor by most of the better class of practitioners."
Such disfavor was justified by tlie unsatisfactory operations made with the
amalgam first used, which expanded so much as to spoil its usefulness, but the
cause of it was chiefly the unfortunate manner of its introduction in America.
About the year 18.3.3 the Crawcour brothers came to New York and began
to fill teeth with the "royal mineral succadaneum." They seem to have been
