272 INFLAiMMATIOX IX THE TISSUES OF 



success ? The surgeon is compelled, by tlie ter- 

 rible alternative, to treat and, if possible, cure 

 periostitis by internal remedies associated witli 

 local applications. Not so the dentist. The ex- 

 traction of a tooth is not so formidable in the 

 immediate pain it inflicts, and the after apparent 

 consequences that follow, that patients generally 

 obstinately refuse to submit to it when it is recom- 

 mended by their dentist ; it is, therefore, the more 

 necessary that he should have a quick and tender 

 conscience, faithfully to act upon the command, 

 " Do as thou would' st be done by." But I 

 fear it must be confessed that the neglect of a 

 medical education will principally account for the 

 indiscriminate extraction of teeth. Unfamiliar 

 with disease and its treatment — for it is quite 

 impossible for a man to know disease merely by 

 reading about it, yet, unfortunately, hitherto this 

 has been almost the only way the man qualifying 

 himself as a dentist has been able to acquaint him- 

 self with it ; he must have seen it, and educated 

 all his senses by coming in contact with it, to 

 know it to any practical purpose — unfamiliar with 

 disease, I say, and its treatment, he has not known 

 how cases may be dependent upon constitutional 

 vice, and how, if so, they may be treated with a 

 good chance of success ; and thus many an ex- 

 traction is due, not to want of conscientiousness, 

 but really to want of knowledge. I rejoice in the 

 firm belief that this great evil has received its death- 



