Page 267 - My FlipBook

THE ANTISEPTIC ACTION OF FILLING-MATERIALS. 239

variably manifested a retarding or preventing action upon the
growth of bacteria. (Fig- 106.)
These results accord exactly with those which I obtained by en-
tirely different methods in 1884 {Independent Practitioner, June),
and wdiich have been called in question by Bogue and others.
Of course it must not be inferred from these remarks that a
little piece of copper amalgam dropped into a liter of bouillon
will keep it from spoiling. Xor would an experiment of this
nature lie a just test of the antiseptic action of a material used
in filling.
Fig. 106.

An INOCULATED ffELATiXE PLATE Containing: a, idoces of oxyphosphato cement one day
old; h, pieces of gold amalgam one day old; <•, pieces of an old copper amalgam filling, ago
unknown ; d, pieces of stained dentine from a tooth which had been filled many years pre-
viously with copper amalgam.
If the tilling prevents the progress of decay in softened den-
tine under it or in immediate contact with it, and if it retards
the progress of fermentation in fine spaces (leakages) between it
and the marginal wall, then it is doing a great deal toward pre-
venting the recurrence of caries, which another filling not pos-
sessing antiseptic properties would not do.
That so much is accomplished by copper amalgam, I am, I
believe, justified in concluding from the experiments enumerated
above, and more particularly from those made under the second
method and described below. It is a view^, moreover, pretty
generally accepted by all operators who have had opportunity