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PORCELAIN INLAYS 197

wasting either ceases or is extremely slow. We
hear of dentists who fit their inlays so perfectly
that no trace of cement can be found in the joint.
It seems difficult to understand how the Avasting
away can be observed in cases where the joint is
so close that no cement can be discovered on the
completion of the operation. The extraordinary
penetration of fluids into an ajpimrcntly perfectly
close joint is sufficient to make one expect a
dissolving out of the cement, no matter how fine
the line of cement may be, but the practical resist-
ance of the fine line of cement, and the resistance
of the slowly produced and infinitesimal space to
the collection of food stuffs in sufficient quantities
to cause decay more rapidly than with other so-
called permanent materials, is something for the
future to determine. The probabilities are that
porcelain inlay work will depend for its permanency
as a tooth-saving method, or material, on judgment
and skill, and that it will hold its own as a perma-
nent method with the best of the permanent, or so-
called permanent, methods and materials that we
have at our command. And assuming an average
of permanency in suitable cases, it possesses the
saving grace of beauty, which is alone sufficient to
make one strain its durable properties to the fullest