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HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY 335

mate by sending his dynamometer to the muscular operator; who, thereupon,
found that lie had been using only about twenty-five pounds pressure. Dr.
Wiite says: 'It is a difficult matter for us to apply more than ten or twelve
pounds pressure on a superior molar of a patient of that many years of age,
or a nervous and yielding patient. * * * But when we have an older
patient, or a hard head and stiff neck, and a molar well set in a well developed
jaw, and the patient firmly seated in the chair, we can apply as much as
twenty-five, and even, in some cases, thirty pounds.'
"The introduction of cohesive foil rendered necessary a radical cliange in
points in general. This change consisted in the serration of the points, at
first, for serration read toothing; for Dr. Arthur recommended 'two or three'
points or teeth as li the original forms, hut grew smaller and more numerous as experience revealed
Iheir fi'e()uent lireakage and other disadvantages. The points of pluggers, in
fact, have gone through the range of intermediate between smooth and blunt,
and sharp and single pointed, and l)ack again. * * * The main tendency
was from a few deep serrations to a multiplicity of shallow ones, and at this
iroint the uiajority of tiie profession now stands."
This last, written thirty years ago, has been equally true during all the
intervening time. With slight variations there is a recognized standard of
depth and distance apart for plugger point serrations, so that the number of
serrations depends entirely upon the extent of area in the condensing face
of the plugger. About the year 1868 or 1869, Dr. Royal W. Varney produced
a set of pluggers in which the size, curves, and temper of each instrument, and
the sizes, forms, and angles to the shafts, of the condensing faces, were so
perfectly adapted for the packing of the light foils most in use (chiefly num-
ber four), that they have maintained their position as a standard set of instru-
ments to the present time and are still used by many operators.
The variety in forms of pluggers has been very great. Perliaps the most
important development has been the use of oval faced points by some operators.
A set of tiiese nuule Ijy Dr. E. A. Iioyce has been extensively used. The idea of
an oval face for a plugger point is not recent, for some of the earlier sets, tliat
of Dr. C. if. Butler for one, contained one or more oval faced points, but
these were used chiefly for surface condensation or building gold free from
cavity margins, while Dr. Royce's set are intended for packing entire fillings.
"Tlie most radical change in the filling of teeth has been wrought by the
mallet. The introduction of this instrument has been erroneouslv ascribed to