WHEN SUPPURATING, ETC. 381 



treatment, but I feel it would be of little value 

 unless tbe exact conditions of tbe teeth at the 

 time of the first application were also correctly 

 stated. Now, a patient often applies to you 

 whose suffering is more of a constitutional than 

 of a local nature ; and this, like any other topical 

 remedy, fails to afford relief. Or a patient appHes 

 to you having a tooth which you feel satisfied 

 is beyond the range of your conservative powers, 

 yet, unwilling to part with it, you yield to his 

 solicitations, and make an effort to save it, which 

 proves fruitless. But in cases where there is a 

 fair chance of success, I believe the method I 

 have described will be found at least equal to any 

 other; and has not, as in operations for destroying 

 the pulp, the drawback of being, at times, an 

 intensely painful process. 



In applying it, however, I am willing to admit 

 there are several disadvantages. It demands a 

 larger amount of time and attention, both on the 

 part of the operator and patient, though very 

 rarely so much as in the first case I have reported. 

 Then, again, where the apphcation is left to the 

 patient, you have no means of ascertaining that 

 it is regularly employed; and then, after the tooth 

 has received the gutta percha, your patient, per- 

 fectly comfortable, forgets his appointment at the 

 end of the month, or puts it off from time to time 

 till the gutta percha has come out, pain has again 

 been experienced, and he is compelled to seek 



