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348 HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGEEY

It was, in its early days, an active and progressive association and did
much to build up the profession in the middle west. The lack of means for
professional communications was soon felt; nearly all of the few dental jour-
nals were published in the eastern states. To meet this need the publication
of a dental journal under the auspices of the association was broached and,
meeting with favor, a committee was appointed to consider the cost, and the
advisability of jniblishing a quarterly dental Journal. At a meeting of the
Association held at Cincinnati, September 8, 1847, this committee reported
in favor of the project, and it was decided to publish a quarterly journal of
at least forty-eight pages, the first issue to number 500 copies. But little
time was lost. With the title, "Dental Register of the West," the first num-
ber appeared in October, 184-7, Dr. James Taylor, of Cincinnati, assuming
tlie work of editor and publisher, assisted by Dr. B. B. Brown, of St. Louis,
JIo. The subscription price was fixed at two dollars per annum. The pub-
lication compared favorably with its compeers. When we remember that the
la1)or of collecting matter for its pages, editing, and managing this enter-
prise was mainly the work of an already busy man, and moreover work in a
new field, we can readily overlook errors due to inexperience.
The financial results of the first volume were not encouraging. Of its sub-
scription list of eighty, seventy only had paid ; its income from advertisers
amounted to fifteen dollars. The total income for the first year amounted
to one-hundred and fifty-five dollars. The association made good the defic-
iency, and the journal entered its second year. In the first number of the
second volume. Dr. Jonathan Taft, makes, probably, his first appearance as
a dental writer, in an article entitled "The Use of the Key." He was then
located at Xenia, Ohio, and had just well started iipon his long and useful
career. The financial results of the second year were not equal to the first,
poor as they were. The income was less, and the expenses greater.
Beginning with the third volume, October, 1851, the journal liecame the
property of Dr. James Taylor, who continued as editor and publisher until
the close of the ninth volume, wlien it was transferred to Drs. Taft and
Watt. During this time it had been now and again enlarged, the ninth
volume containing 448 pages: the subscription price, at the beginning of
this volume, was advanced to three dollars per year. Dr. Taylor's large prac-
tice and his increasing duties as a dental teacher compelled him to relinquish
his labor of love in publishing a needed and fairly successful dental journal.
It had earned for itself a place among the journals of the day; it had proved
a factor in building up the profession and helping it to keep pace with the