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HISTOEY OF DENTAL SURGERY 339

Robinson, of Philadelphia. Dr. Welcli was the founder of "Items of In-
terest," and its editor until business reverses of its publishers caused it to
pass into other hands. "Items of Interest" was an unpretentious little Jour-
nal, it was well numaged and edited, and liad proved a decided success. Dr.
Welch modeled his new journal on much the same lines as his old one. With
the beginning of the second volume, August, 1897, the title was changed to
the "Dental Brief," and its publication assunud by the L. D. Caulk Com-
pany, of Philadelphia, dealers in dentists' supplies. Tlie third volume con-
sisted of five nund)ers only, so as to begin the fourth volume with the be-
ffinnincr of the vear. Dr. Welch was advanced in years, and other business
o
interests were pressing, he, therefore, retired, and was succeeded, at tlie be-
ginning of the fourth volume, by Dr. Wilbur F. Litch, its present editor.
His management, and its pulilisher's liberality, have made it one of tlie
leading dental journals: it is artistic in its "make-up," scholarly, and well
filled with original articles by experienced writers.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Toward the close of 1877 tlie publication of various articles upon the use
of amalgam for filling carious cavities in human teeth, by Dr. J. Foster
Flagg, and others interested in the improvement of that material, incited a
general interest in its betterment throughout the profession. Shortly after,
while the subject was under discussion at a meeting of the Xew Jersey State
Dental Society, Dr. Thomas B. Welch, a prominent member of the society',
gave an interesting account of a series of experiments he had made looking
to its improvement. The results were promising, and to encourage further
effort a resolution was adopted asking him, or some other of the society's
members, to perfect and put on the market a reliable alloy, and other
reliable tilling materials, selling the same at a reasonable price.
Encouraged by this, Dr. Welch continued his experiments, and later began
tlie numufacture of alloy and other dental preparations which quickly received
the endorsement of his fellow members as being superior to those heretofore
in use. As a means of advertising his products, he began, in July, 1879,
the publication of a bimonthly dental journal entitled "Items of Interest."
He was then located at Vineland, N. J. Mr. S. F. Hamilton, of that town.
was its piiblisher. It was in folio form, eleven by fourteen inches, each
number having four pages. Dr. Welch was a ready writer; he had tlie
happy faculty of (|uickly appreciating and tersely expressing the gist of cur-