126 €1)0 ^e i3enti^t^. 



suspiciously leaden hue ; we are all so thankful to be 

 free again that we are not anxious to enter too 

 particularly into such matters of detail, lest a second 

 visit should be suggested by some more practical, if 

 less sympathetic friend than the rest. And that is 

 where these worthy dentists have such a pull over us. 



" Stopping " is all very well, but having a tooth 

 out is the ordeal par excellence, though I question very 

 much if, " taking one consideration with another," 

 the patients, sufferers though they may be, do not 

 have considerably the best of the bargain. 



Put yourself, for example, in the place of the 

 neatly-attired and amiable practitioner when vainly 

 endeavouring to allay the fears of a dispeptic old 

 female fossil of a highly nervous and spasmodic 

 temperament ; or, again, when trying to cajole a 

 spoilt and rebellious juvenile into a suitable state of 

 tranquillity. He has my sympathies, poor man, no 

 less surely than he has their screams, expostulations, 

 or even scratches ! But when I once spoke on this 

 head in terms of condolence to one of the craft, I 

 shall never forget the bland manner in which the 

 good man uttered this reply : " Yes, Sir ; we do have 

 to put up with a good deal at times ; children, how- 

 ever, are more often than not the best of patients" 

 (Fie on you nerveless sinners of maturer years !) ; 

 and then, continued he with more animation, '^ but 



