OF CASES OF CLEFT PALATE. 9 



the tray, armed with softened wax, had been 

 pressed upwards against the alveolar ridge as far 

 as possible, the finger was introduced into the 

 mouth, and the moveable piece of metal was 

 pressed upwards and forwards, carrying the wax 

 before it. Thus a quantity of wax, so small as to 

 be easily removed from the mouth, was sufficient 

 to reach the highest part of the arch, and even to 

 extend some way into the fissure of a cleft palate. 

 This plan will be found to answer well in all 

 such cases as those I have referred to, provided 

 the lower jaw can be extended wide enough to 

 allow the tray to be removed from the mouth 

 without the front teeth scraping the upper surface 

 of the wax. But instances will occasionally arise 

 in which this cannot be accomplished, in which 

 the oral opening will be so small as not to allow of 

 even such a body being withdra^vn from it without 

 sustaining some damage. In these cases I have 

 found the following plan succeed. I take the best 

 impression I can with an ordinary form of tray, 

 from which I obtain a metal model, and strike 

 up a Britannia-metal plate, placing between the 

 model and the plate several layers of thick brown 

 paper, so that the plate shall fit the mouth very 

 loosely. I sometimes solder to this plate a handle, 

 to render its removal from the mouth more easy. 

 On this plate I lay a sheet of softened wax about 

 a quarter of an inch in thickness, which, as the 

 tray nearly fits the mouth it is used for, is suffi- 



