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HISTOEY OF DENTAL SUKGEKY 233

condemning the indiscriminate and injudicious filing of teeth, and one or
two writers opposed its use except in a very few cases.
1 "Tlie principal early improvements were those of Dr. E. Townsend, of
Philadelphia, one of wliich was designed for the adaptation of pivot crowns
to the roots. Tliis was secured by making two companion files, one convex,
the other concave, both of the same curve, the former used on the root, the lat-
ter on the crown. Dr. Townsend also devised a set of 'finishing files' in the
form of a straight or curved smooth central portion (for a handle), carrying
at each extremity thin curved, oval, and other shaped file blades.
"Dr. Harris, of Baltimore, in 1833, originated a form of file for the separa-
tion of the molars, to avoid the then common use of the file carrier for this
purpose.^ These were about one and one-half inches in length, shaped like
a clock pinion file, and having a handle-like continuation, bent twice so as to
form an offset with the hand part projecting beyond.
"The first recorded form of 'file carrier' is that devised by Dr. A. Westcott,
of Syracuse.^ In 1848 Mr. J. D. Chevalier introduced another form."
It is not necessary to describe these, and others introduced later. Some
held the files by their extremities, like the simple saw frames still in use, others
grasped one end of the file and were chiefly used for carrying short broken
pieces of ordinary separating files.
"The introduction of wheels or disks into operative dentistry was depend-
ent upon the advent of the burring engine; but the date of first use of re-
volving cutters cannot be determined" (These were burs and spear-pointed,
and flat drills, revolved by the fingers) "Dental wheels and disks probably
grew imperceptibly and simultaneously in many hands from the saw burr.
The various grinding stones were first used, and were succeeded by the
shellac and emery composition, which, in turn, has given way to the corun-
dum wheels of Dr. A. L. Northrup and E. Arthur. A later addition to the
list is the disk of W. G. A. Bonvill, a compound of rubber and corundum
worked into shape and afterward vulcanized."
Carborundum came into use later and now there are to be had a great
variety of forms and sizes, in three or four different grades of fineness, of
stones, disks and v/heels, and also a great variety of paper and cloth disks,
of sand paper, emery, garnet, cuttle-fish, etc., capable of cutting very rapidly
or finishing very smoothly as required.

' History of Dental and Oral Science in America.
- Harris Dental Dictionary, p. 281.
^ American Journal of Dental Science, 1st Series, Vol. VII, p. 293.