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THE ANTISEPTIC ACTION OF FILLING-MATERIALS. 237

far as they dissolve fatty substances without attacking the teeth,
and, furthermore, possibly make the penetration of the bristles
of the tooth-brush into the center of decay somewhat more easy.
They should be made of neutral soap, and have a neutral or
slight alkaline reaction. Under all conditions, however, the
chief thino^ is the thoroua^h mechanical cleausino- of the teeth.

THE ANTISEPTIC ACTION OF FILLING-MATERIALS.

It will scarcely be questioned by anyone acquainted with the
nature of those diseases of the teeth which we treat by filling,
that in a great many cases, if not in all, the probability of suc-
cess would be greatly heightened if the filling-material could be
made to exert a permanent antiseptic action upon the walls and
margin of the ca^dty. This is more particularly true of all cases
where, for some reason or other, carious dentine is left in the
cavitv at the time of fillino'; and such cases constantlv occur in
every dental practice. There are, I hope, very few practitioners
in dentistry who place so high an estimate upon their own skill
and thoroughness, or so far overlook the imperfection in the
structure of the dentine, as to imagine that they excavate every
cavity perfectly. ^lany even ])refer lea\-ing a thin layer of soft-
ened dentine in the cavity to removing it, if the pulp would
thereby be exposed. Others, no doubt, for very humane reasons,
sometimes excavate less thoroughly than they otherwise would
do, in order to spare their patient the excessive pain accompany-
ing the operation, or because the patient cannot or will not bear
the pain. Most of us, for the sake of our backs, toward the end
of a hard day's work, now and then decide that a ditfie-ult cavity
is ready to fill when a careful examination of it might still reveal
soft points. It is not necessary, however, to enumerate other
cases in which the preparation of the cavity is not quite tault-
less ; most readers will no doubt be able to suggest many more.
Now, it may appear remarkable that, "\vhile so much attention
has of late years been bestowed upon the antiseptic treatment of
root-canals and the employment of antiseptic materials for fill-
ing them, very little attention has been given to the subject of
the antiseptic materials for filling ca\'ities of decay ; iodoform