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318 HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY

is desiral)le to force it tlirough the foramen into it. The antiseptic, stimulant
and astringent effects are just what is needed in such cases.
Dr. Callahan said he liad been using this method for opening, cleansing and
sterilizing pulp canals for about four years with great satisfaction. Not very
much has recently been published about this method of treatment, but a con-
siderable number at least are making frequent use of it. Dr. Callahan men-
tioned that the broach or cleanser used with the acid should be discarded
after once using as they would be found to break very easily if used at a sub-
sequent sitting.
In a paper on "Immediate root-filling" by J. Smith Dodge, Jr., M. D.,
D. D. S., of New York, ("Cosmos," 1887, pp. 23i-.5), says: "This practice
may be familiar to others, but it came to my mind as a direct application of
Listerian surgery, and I am not aware that any one has adopted it outside of
my immediate circle." We liave noted that Dr. C. W. Spalding, of St. Louis,
in 185G or 1857, in describing his practice of root-tilling used this e.xpression:
"If the fang be healthy tlie sooner the better." He had just been saying tliat he
"cleaned the cavity perfectly, wiped out carefully, and filled immediately, with
gold." It appears, therefore, that the practice of immediate root-fdling was not
so modern as Dr. Dodge seemed to suppose, and it may be remarked that there
would not be quite so many claims of novelty in operations described before
dental societies if the men who make such claims were better readers of the
periodical literature of tlie profession.
Dr. Dodge limits the practice strictly to teeth having some portion at
least of the pulp in each canal living, and he takes the further precaution of
sterilizing the canals thoroughly. He filled with a cold cone of Hill's stop-
ping, made plastic and packed with liot instruments.
In the "Cosmos" two months later (.lune, 1887, pp. 36G-r>7), Dr. C. Ed-
mund Kelts, Jr., D. D. S., of New Orleans, commenting on the above article
by Dr. Dodge, says: "I believe that dentists all over the country are filling, at
one sitting, pulpless roots—roots in all stages of inflammation, as well as
those in which the pulps are wholly or partly alive : and not only filling them,
but doing so successfully. At the time of learning this method I was fortu-
nately favored witli an epidemic of pulpless teeth, and of the first one liun-
dred and tliirtv cases witliin two years a careful record was kept, and no fail-
ures ensued to my knowledge. This sufficed to convince me of the soundness
of the doctrine. Today a root is treated as a simple cavity—cleaned, and
filled at once, no matter wliat its condition. I know of but two exceptions
to this rule—one when so much swelling of the face exists as to render oper-