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210 HISTOEY OF DENTAL SUEGEEY

applied to the nerve;' also: 'So complete and satisfactory is the operation
of the arsenic in destroj'ing the living iibre, that, instead of extracting teeth
whenever the nerve is badl}' exposed, we destroy it, plug the teeth, and thus
preserve them." Dr. Spooner employed a mixture of three parts arseuious
acid and one part of acetate of morphia. He says 'the twentieth of a grain
(arsenic) is quite enough to destroy the nerve of any tooth.' He also men-
tions nitric acid and nitrate of silver as old remedies, and adds, referring to
the actual cautery, 'a hot wire is the remains of barbarism, * * *
"
and does not become the present enlightened day.'
Chapin A. Harris, in 1839,' recommended the "application of leeches to
the gum, and soothing and astringent applications to the cavity." He also
gives the following formula for application to the pulp, directing it to be in-
troduced on raw cotton and reapplied every day. "Sul. ether, 5 1 ; creasote,
3 ss; nutgalls, 5 i; camphor, 5 ss." He adds to the list of these practiced
methods, besides those already noted, the use of the drill, and muriatic acid.
With regard to the then new employment of arsenic, he remarks that "the
fact that this article is a most deadly poison * * * ^^.j^ preclude its
use from ever becoming very general." And he names "for the destruction
of the nerve in teeth which have but one fang," the use of the drill "as supe-
rior to anything that has been heretofore proposed." Notwithstanding the
opinion and the warning of so influential a man as Dr. Chapin A. Harris,
the use of arsenic for destroying the pulps of teeth did become universal, and
it is only recently that the method has been displaced in part by the use of
cocaine anaesthesia induced rapidly by means of pressure.

KNOCKING OUT PULPS.
Dr. G. A. Mills (reported in the "Cosmos" Vol. XXV, pp. 447-48, 1883)
describes the operation of "knocking out pulps" by driving into the canal a
hickory or orange wood stick, slender enough to reach the apex, and dipped
in creosote or carbolic acid. A quick blow of the mallet carries the wood
to the apex and after a few seconds it may be withdrawn bringing the pulp
with it. Dr. Mills testified from his own experience that the pain "was not
worthy of notice." (Others who have experienced the operation have
described it in much less satisfactory terms.) Dr. Mills discussed the
date of the origin of the operation. He said Dr. Atkinson, some twenty years
previously (about 1863), had described something similar in preparation for

^ The Dental Art; A Practical Treatise on Dental Surgery, Baltimore, 1839.