EARLY DESTRUCTION OF THE TEETH. 123 



and how much sxiffering might be prevented, if 

 some arrangement could be made that would enable 

 the lower classes to reap all the advantages derivable 

 from the advice and assistance of the dentist, so that 

 caries might be prevented, or arrested in time. We 

 have hospitals open to the poor, where they receive 

 the full benefit of the physicians' and surgeons' 

 skill and treatment; and in many instances as 

 effectually as if they were private and paying 

 patients. But it is not so as regards the treatment 

 of the teeth. True, the poor man may have his 

 tooth extracted gratuitously, and return again and 

 again for a similar operation, but no preventive 

 measures are employed, nor can there be in the 

 present state of things. Take the community at 

 large, and we shall find not one in a thousand who 

 bestows that attention upon the teeth which is 

 absolutely necessary to preserve them in a healthy 

 condition. And yet it may safely be asserted that 

 none of the organs of the human body are so often* 

 the subjects of disease ; none whose diseases are so 

 little understood, but, when rightly comprehended, 

 none so completely under individual control. 



Since writing the above, some six weeks ago I 

 had some conversation with Dr. Eraser, of the 10th 

 Hussars, as to the practicability and desirableness 

 of some arrangement that would enable the lower 

 classes to partake of the benefit that may be 

 derived from an application of the means now so 

 generally and so successfcdly employed by the more 



