CHAPTER X 



THE TREATMENT OF CAVITIES 

 WITHOUT FILLING 



THE tree surgeons have one almost universal 

 characteristic. They all decline the half 

 loaf. If they cannot have the whole loaf, they 

 will have none. If they cannot do a perfect job, 

 get all the decay out of the tree and replace the 

 destroyed wood with a neat filling, they will not 

 touch it. At least, so they say. If there are 

 ever published the " Confessions of a Tree Sur- 

 geon's Foreman," perhaps we shall discover that, 

 more often than we have ever guessed, they have 

 been content to receive several good slices less 

 than the whole loaf. A coating of tar and a fill- 

 ing of cement can cover a multitude of sins. Be 

 that as it may, the writer believes that, though 

 in many cases decay cannot be completely re- 

 moved, there are few cases in which the progress 

 of decay cannot be retarded, or at least in which 

 the final result of the decay, the destruction of the 

 tree, cannot be materially postponed. The ways 

 and means of accomplishing these ends constitute 

 the subject-matter of this chapter. There are 



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