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206 HISTOKY OF DENTAL SURGEEY

of porcelain surround ixl by a very nan'oti- line of gold to protect the cement,
and Dr. Walker said he had seen a great many inlays, but never any that were
so satisfactory to him as the work done by his friend. Dr. McKellops, of St.
Louis, with gold and platinum foil.
It is evident from such papers and discussions as this that porcelain inlay
work developed earlier and more rapidly in Europe than America, in response
to a more urgent demand over there for fillings in the front of the mouth
less unsightly than gold, and it is also apparent that porcelain fillings liad
not at that time come into any very extensive use in this country. It is only
during the past ten years that the porcelain inlay has gradually won its
place as a recognized operation in an ordinary practice.
At the meeting of the Xew York Odontological Society in January, 1898,
("Cosmos," Vol. XL, p. 360), Dr. Darby demonstrated Dr. Jenkins' system
of low fusing porcelain inlays and the discussion which followed, while it
brought out forcibly the failure of the glass inlays, showed strong indications
that the tide of opinions and practice was turning in favor of porcelain inlays
made by fusing in a matrix.
In the "Cosmos" for August, 1898, Dr. N. S. Jenkins, of Dresden, made
formal annoiTUcement in this country of what he then considered the perfect-
ing of his porcelain enamel and described in detail the process of making in-
lays with it. lie says he had been experimenting for five years before arriv-
ing at satisfactory results, which were accomplished in March, 1898. He
says: '"My practice contains a complete record of the progress of tliis inven-
tion, from fillings which would turn black or gray on the surface, roughen
at the edges, and check and crack in every direction, up to those perfect in-
lays which are unchangeable in color, indestructible in surface, exact in edge,
and capable of resisting the force of mastication."
At a meeting of the Xew York Odontological Society in October, 1898
(Cosmos, Vol. XLI, p. 47), Dr. Walker, of Xew York, refers to the cementing
of the porcelain in the cavities as one of the greatest difficulties in the work,
and said there was a dentist in Buda Pesth, Dr. Zsigmondy, who made some
of the most beautiful inlays he had ever seen and who never used oxyphosphate
or any other cement, but used a transparent varnish, the composition of
which Dr. Walker did not know. In the same discussion Dr. Van Woert said
he had set three inlays with the Canada balsam varnish opticians use for
cementing together lenses of spectacles.
If this manner of setting inlays had proved durable it would probably