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HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY 325

series of predisposing causes, wliieli liave been operating for ages past, is a matter of
little moment. It is quite sufficient for our happiness and mutual congratulations, to
know that we live in an age of unparalleled improvement in all that can result from
the energies of intellect acting upon material nature, or from the reaction of matter
upon the human mind.
In this condition of civilized man, and of all those arts and sciences which em-
bellish life, imparting to it argumented zest and increased duration, it is our hajjpiness
to know that neither the theory, or the practice of the dental art, has been left behind
the age, either by the incompetency or inactivity of those individuals to whom in the
progress of events, its destiny has been intrusted. If there be any class of men in
these States who have ' ' compassed sea and land, ' ' in the pursuit of usefulness, fame
and fortune, braving obliquy, and resisting opposition, enduring fatigue, and dispising
danger, there are surely among our collaborators men who stand in the foremost rank
of these benovelent adventurers. Nor have they exerted themselves in vain. Ample for-
tune and enviable celebrity have already rewarded the spirited zeal of many laborers
in this wide field of professional enterprise; while the improved condition of our art,
as regards its salutary influence on society at large, is proof of the justice of the
desert which has been munificently rewarded.
What encouragement, then, in this, to increased exertion in this field of useful
labor, and honorable distinction! Who would not prefer to attend these distinguished
pioneers in the paths of dental science and share their rewards, than to follow the
Cfesars and Napoleons of past ages to their fields of blood, and their untimely graves'?
Presuming that many of those individuals, to whose professional interests this
work will be devoted, must feel as we do on the subject of elevating the dental science
to its deserved position among the callings of men—and feeling cimfident that where
much has been already done, still more remains to be effected, the publishing com-
mittee have issued this specimen number of a monthlj' periodical, dedicated to
the profession at large, with a perfect conviction of the obvious truth, that by their
jirompt encouragement or silent neglect, it must either stand or fall. That any othor
class of our fellow citizens, excepting, perhaps, an inconsiderable portion of the medi-
cal profession, will afl'ord the least encouragement to the present undertaking, is
beyond our hope. The details of dental practice, and even the more sufferable theory
of our art, possess an absorbing interest chiefly with the more intelligent and
ambitious of our own profession ; and it is to them, therefore, that we now apjieal,
by first presenting an expose of our general plan, and then suggesting a few brief
considerations to imluce our professioual brethren to cooperate in our design.
Then followed a long list of particulars giving with much detail the ])lans
and hopes of the pulilishing committee. Thus was ushered into the world
the first dental journal.
The first article was a review, by Solyman Brown, of Chapin A. Harris'
first work, entitled "The Dental Art/"' really the first edition of his well
known and much appreciated "Principles and Practice of Dental Surgery."'
This was followed by a lengthy extract from a translation of "Delabarrc (Hi
Second Dentition." by Dr. Harris; an account of a remarkable tooth, bv E.