Page 371 - My FlipBook

IIISTUKY OF DENTAL SURGEKY 333 ;

indeed, the second in the world to survive early infancy, the "Dental News
Letter," was projected and brought into being by this enterprising firm, the
progenitor of tlie present S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company. The
"Dental News Letter" was the immediate predecessor of the present "Dental
Cosmos."

THE DENTAL NEWS LETTER AND THE DENTAL COSMOS.

The first number of the "Dental News Letter" appeared in October, 1847.
It was an octavo of sixteen pages, published by the firm of Jones, White &
('ompany, dealers in dentists' supplies, 273 Race street, Philadelphia. It
was a quarterly, subscription fifty cents a year. The object of its publication
is set forth in the following valedictory on page 7, of the first number:
Our object in publishing the "News Letter" is, first: that tlie profession, both
in the United States and in Europe, may be informed of the improvements which
have been, and are now being made in the manufacture of artificial teeth; the
various tools and aids in the workshop, and instruments for the operating room;
second: To bring before the profession all that is new in the theory and practice of
dentistry, through the medium of original communications, essays from old and young
practitioners, collations from authors, and items of news on all subjects relating to
dentistry.
No editor is named on the title page. Mr. John R. McCurdy, however,
a member of the firm, made the journal his special care, a task for which he
was well (jualified. He was the business manager of the firm, and by asso-
ciation and correspondence well known to the profession at home and al)road
he was keenly interested in all that tended for professional advancement, and
possessed a fair share of literary ability. The first article is a communication
relating to the administration of sulphuric ether, by Dr. J. F. B. Flagg, prob-
ably the first to discover and make known that Morton's mysterious "letheon"
was the well known sulphuric ether, and one of the first in Philadelphia, to
make its administration in dental and surgical practice a specialty. The
second is a report of a case of "cancrum oris," by C. A. Peck, dentist, of
Norristown, Pa. ; the next, on the "Effects of Mercury on the Teeth." This
is followed by a report of proceedings of the Pennsylvania Association of
Dental Surgeons, then just entering its third year, and now well into its
sixty-third year of active continuous existence. Another page is taken up
with little items, nearly all of the rest are occupied with advertisements of
the firm. It was a modest beginning. The firm was young, their means were
limited, and they had as competitor the old and well established firm of