ON CAPPING THE EXPOSED PULP. 133 



dentist to avoid wounding the pulp if possible, he 

 directs the use of the actual cautery should haemor- 

 rhage be caused by the inevitable occurrence of that 

 injury. He deprecates the employment of acids 

 and styptics ; he gives particular directions for the 

 proper cauterization of the exposed surface, &c., and 

 then describes his method of laying a small plate of 

 very thin lead leaf on the part, and filling up the 

 cavity with gold, remarking, that he covers the 

 nerve with lead, because he believes that that metal 

 has a cooling and anti-inflammatory effect upon the 

 irritated nerve, or at least, that it possesses these 

 qualities in a greater degree than gold. The average 

 success of his mode of treatment he gives as being 

 five out of six cases. 



Fitch, in his work published in 1829, refers to 

 Koecker s remarks on this subject, and observes 

 that he had " adopted his plan with perfect success 

 in some cases," but that in others it entirely failed." 

 He then speaks of a method of treatment of the 

 exposed pulp, by the application of some powerful 

 astringent to it, which he keeps in contact by filling 

 the cavity of decay with wax, and changes from 

 time to time. The astringent he used was the soft 

 part of the fresh Aleppo gall-nut, which he re- 

 newed every ten or fifteen days for several weeks, or 

 even months, till the sensibility of the nerve or 

 lining membrane is reduced. He then followed 

 Koecker' s plan of covering the exposed point with 

 lead, and affirms that by the combination of the 



