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tice" (Introduction); but we would, with all kindness, still irecall to his memory the apophthegm—″Was sich im Umgang Ider Natur und in ihrem Anschauen entwickelt, hat mehr i

Werth als alles Erdachte oder Erlente. Das allein hat nur Ewahres Leben d. h. den Geist der Natur, and ist so ewig wahrwie sie."

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Egypt : its Climate, Character, and Resources as a Winter Re-sort; with Appendix. of Meteorological Notes. By A.HEXRY RHIND, F.S.A., &c. Edinburgh: 1851. pp. 151.

THIS little work may be well recommended to those who,affiicted by disease, but blessed with money, can afford to makea voyage to the Nile in search of health and mental relaxation.It is, in fact, the only record that we can, at the moment, bringto mind, that a patient could be referred to, of observationswith reference to the sanative influence of the climate of Egypt.We do not say scuttered remarks are not to be found in bookson Climatology, in reference to the subject; but Mr. Rhindconfines himself to this country, and also to it in a sanitaryaspect. He also touches upon many domestic and monetarymatters highly useful and necessary to those who visit Cairo,Thebes, and Alexandria, and have to engage boats for ascend-ing Egypt’s ancient river, or wish to furnish and convert atomb into a villa at the foot of the Pyramids of Geezeh. The

following résumé of the author is worth quoting:-″ Nothing I have written will, it is hoped, lead any one to

fancy that, according to my notion, every invalid has only tospend a winter or two on the Nile to regain his former vigour.To look throughout the compass of the world for any conditionsof atmosphere possessing a virtue so infallible, would be a pur-suit not less vain than to search for the rejuvenating spring ofthe fairy tale, or renew the attempts of mediaeval alchemy toeliminate an elixir vitce. The sickle is not to be turned asidewith such unvarying success; but thus much, and thus muchonly, can be said, that whatever benefit is to be expected fromclimate in certain forms of disease is, in all probability, morelikely to be met with in Egypt than elsewhere."-p. 121.

THE DENTAL PROFESSION.

To the Editor of T]aE LANCET.

SIR,—In your issue of the 20th December, I perceive ourfriends, the dental surgeons of this country, are about to esta-blish a Dental Institute or College, for the purpose of excludingquacks, and providing the public with educated practitioners.Now, I am sure every member of the medical profession willrejoice to learn that dentistry is at last to be rescued from thehands of barbers and tinkers, and be put on the same level asthe sister arts of medicine and surgery; but if the dentists wishto carry their point, they must start right. In the first place,they must be united; party feeling and professional jealousymust be buried in oblivion. All must unite in seeking by com-bined effort the establishment of a Dental College, which willbe empowered by Act of Parliament to confer diplomas. OurEnglish friends should take as their model the Baltimore Col-lege of Dental Surgery, an old-established and flourishing insti-tution, where students have ample opportunities of perfectingthemselves in this useful calling. When on a visit to theStates lately, I had the great pleasure of witnessing the admi-rable working of this College, as well as of seeing a number ofsplendid operations performed by the students, and my convic-tion was that dentistry, as an art, is very much better under-stood and practised throughout the United States than in thiscountry. There are four professors of the art in the BaltimoreCollege—the Chair of Dental and General Anatomy ; that ofthe Principles and Practice of Dental Surgery; that of DentalMechanism and Chemistry; lastly, that of Dental Medicine.There are bi-weekly cliniques, illustrating all the diseases to- which the teeth are subject, and the students have innumerableopportunities of themselves operating under the eye of_theiraccomplished teachers.

I stated that dentistry in the new world is in advance of ushere. In illustration of this, I may state that that vile com-pound, called amalgam, (mercury and silver filings,) is neverused by American dentists. They say, and with great truth,that it destroys the vitality of the tooth, and sets up inflam-mation of the lining membrane of the socket, not to speak of

the disfigurement it produces in changing the colour of thetooth. I am frequently nnding these amalgam stoppings theoccult cause of severe and intractable neuralgia, of the face,which, of course, depending as it does upon the above cause,refuses to yield to the most skilfully directed remedies. I havealso known of several cases of ptyalism produced by these mer-curial Filings. I think, therefore, it is high time the Englishdentists should discard this injurious compound from theirlaboratories. It requires no skill in its insertion; it may there-fore suit the clumsy practitioner : it is cheap; therefore it willever be in vogue with a certain class of dentists, and the publictoo; but all practitioners who regard their own reputation,and that portion of the community who wish to save theirteeth, must avoid it.

I had an opportunity when in America of witnessing theoperations of most of the first dentists in the country, and Iwas charmed with the admirable skill exhibited by these gen-tlemen. They assured me that they could stop with pure goldany tooth which was worth stopping, and, in exemplificationof this, a distinguished New York dentist removed from myown mouth several amalgam stoppings which had been put inin this country, and substituted gold. No doubt much skill isoften required to put in a good gold stopping, and theAmericans are often three and four hours in filling a tooth. Byexercising great lateral pressure in introducing the gold, theyare able to make a stopping as solid as a sovereign, perfectlyimpervious to the nnids of the mouth, thus effectually stoppingthe progress of the decay. When the cavity has been filled tooverflowing, so that an inexperienced observer would supposeit could not possibly contain a grain of gold more, the operatorforces a wedge-shaped instrument through the centre of thestopping, and fills up the hole with more gold; this is done re-peatedly until, as I said before, the stopping is rendered assolid as a gold coin. Again, unlike the work of our Englishdentists, the American stoppings, by dint of filing, polishing,and burnishing, are rendered as bright as a mirror. No nidusis left for the accumulation of food, which, when decomposed,is one of the fruitful causes of dental caries.As regards mechanical dentistry in America, truth also com-

pels me to say that, at least in one respect, the Americans havethe advantage of us. I allude to the usual practice in thiscountry of placing gold plates with artificial teeth over deadroots. There the American dentists invariably extract beforefitting a plate. They rightly juclge that a mouthful of dead-and rotten roots must be a source of annoyance and disgustboth to the patient and his friends. I have lately had to treatone or two such cases, which had produced dyspeptic symp-toms, the mouth in these cases being a perfect cesspool. Iordered the removal of all the roots, and, I need not say, thegastric symptoms disappeared.

I hope, then, now that a move is being made by the dentistsof England, that they will see that it be in the right direction.Let them agree never to use mercury, and to spare neithertime nor skill in perfecting their operations. The people ofEngland demand good dentistry, and they are willing to payfor it. If our American friends are in advance of us in thisuseful art, let us not be above taking a leaf out of their book,and profiting by their very large practice and experience. Iam not myself a dental practitioner, and I know no Americandentist practising in Europe; therefore I write for the benefitof no individual, but solely for the advancement of dentalscience. I am, Sir, your constant reader,December, 1856. M. R. C. S. ENG.

HEALTH OF LONDON DUllING THE WEEK ENDING

SATURDAY, DEC. 27 TH. —The total number of deaths registeredin London in the week that ended on Saturday is 1069, beingvery nearly the same as in the preceding week. In the corre-

sponding weeks of the years 1846-55 the average number ofdeaths was 1247 ; but the deaths of last week occurred in anincreased population, and if they are to be compared with theaverage, the latter should be raised proportionally to the in-crease, in which case it will become 1372. It appears that thenumber in the present return is less by 300 than would havebeen returned if the average rate of mortality had prevailed.The number of deaths referred last week to diseases of thezymotic class is 211; the corrected average of correspondingweeks is 273. Hooping-cough increased last week to 55.

Typhus and common fever were fatal to 38 persons. Measleswas fatal to 32 children. The mortality from scarlatina was 26,diarrhoea, 12; erysipelas, 10; croup, 9; small-pox, 5. Thedeaths caused by diseases affecting the respiratory organs were233. Phthisis, or consumption, not included in the class abovementioned, caused 12S deaths.

M.R.C.S. ENG.