Dental Surgery.

Editor Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal:

There is an effort now being made, which is pushed forward with vigor, to bring before the present Legislature a bill, which we hope may become a law, to regulate the study and practice of dentistry, and for the formation and control of dental societies in this State. So far, dentistry has had no legal status, no less in regard to the qualification of those to be entrusted with the care and treatment of the teeth, or the diseases connected with them. The mass of people who may be most benefited by conservative dentistry, have no means of judging of qualification, except by sad experience in the loss of their natural teeth. A large mass of dentists have no knowledge of, or ability, to save the natural teeth, or to give them proper care-are uneducated in anything but the manual labor, as mechanics, in pulling them out and putting in artificial ones.

While we may not be able to weed out that class, or even to place restrictions upon any that are already in the business, this law will have the effect, so much desired, of demanding and receiving an established term of pupilage, as that of the medical student, an examination by a competent board of censors, who shall decide upon their qualification, and the result of this examination will be evidence to the community where he may locate, of his qualification. This will secure a better educated class of men, and a much higher standard of qualification of all who are hereafter to come into dental practice.

The bill, as framed, is much the same as the law pertaining to the medical profession-remodeled from it-but so changed as to meet the wants of the dental profession. The State and local societies are to be legalized on the same principles.

The following preamble and resolution were adopted by the New York State Medical Society, at its session just held in Aibany:

Whereas, The Dental Profession of the State of New York, now numbering about two thousand practitioners, are about to petition the Legislature of the State for such legal enactments as will tend to regulate the practice of Dental Surgery, and to make some distinctions between the meritorious and skillful, and the ignorant pretender, and to give this profession a legal recognition, it is by this, the Medical Society of the State of New York.

Resolved, That this move on the part of the Dental Profession of this State, to procure such general laws for its protection, as now pertain to the medical profession, meets with our hearty approval, and that we hereby join in the prayer of their petition for this purpose.

The Erie County Medical Society and the Buffalo Medical Association passed similar resolutions at their January meetings. The Syracuse Courier speaking of Dental Surgery, says: "We are glad to see the medical profession as such, and in official as well as private capacities, recognizing and acknowledging the merits of this scientific art, not merely as an art, but as a collateral branch of the healing art, as a specialty of general surgery. Why this profession has not long since applied to our Legislature for some enactment to regulate its practice, and to protect the public against imposition from dental quackery, has to us been a wonder. But we see they have now gone about this work in earnest, and it is pleasant to see the medical profession promptly stepping forward to aid them to perfect this desirable object."

Yours, &c.,

B. T. WHITNEY.

Miscellaneous.

A Suspension Splint, for treating Simple and Compound Fractures of the Leg.

By E. A. CLARK, M. D., Resident Physician, St. Louis City Hospital.

The great necessity for a well adapted apparatus in treating fractures of the leg, suggested the utility of the instrument I have designed in the following wood-cut, which, not only answers every practical purpose in treating this class of fractures, but also contributes very much to the comfort of the patient, who, while he is enabled to execute every movement of which the sound limb is capable, yet, cannot displace the fracture or modify the force of extension. In presenting this apparatus, I claim an advantage over those invented by Hutchinson, John Neill, Crandall and Salter, not only for the means of extension and counter-extension, but also its adaptation to the treatment of compound fractures of

the leg, as represented in figure No. 2. And considering the simplicity of this instrument, with its cheapness and application to every variety of fractures of the leg, will certainly give it the precedence with those who may venture to use it in a single case. The apparatus is such as may be made by any blacksmith, or indeed by any ingenious surgeon in a case of necessity, when a wooden frame and two hoops with a common iron pully will answer quite as well as the instrument which I have had made of iron on the following plan:

The two arches represented by the letter (H), at one end, are made of iron bars one-eighth of an inch in thickness, and threefourths of an inch wide. These arches are continuous with the bottom pieces (K), which support them upon the bed and measure twenty-two inches in length, making the distance between the two arches, which are also supported on the sides by the two slender bars (F. F.) While the bar extending across the top, upon which the pully (P) glides, should be made flat, with the long diameter perpendicular so as to prevent it bending with the weight of the leg. The width of the arch under which the leg is suspended-as indicated by the letter (L), should be fifteen inches, and the arch eighteen inches from the surface of the bed.

This description will be sufficient to indicate the proportions of the exterior apparatus. The bars represented by the letter (A),

in which the leg is suspended, should be about two feet in lengthunless when the fracture is too close to the knee, and it may be necessary to attach the adhesive straps (M) above the knee, then the bars may extend to near the perineum if necessary. The cross-bar passing beneath the bracket at (B), and upon which the foot rests, should be flattened and five inches in length, so as to allow ample space for the limb to rest between the bars; the space between these bars at the upper end should ordinarily be about six inches. The splint (C) upon which the leg rests in figure 1, should be fluted upon its upper surface so as to conform to the shape of the leg, while it is also made oval upon its under surface, so that both the leg and the splint may be included in the bandage shown in figure No. 1, by which means any displacement may be corrected in the fracture and the bones kept in perfect apposition. The foot piece (1) should be attached to the posterior splint at an obtuse angle, so as to correspond with the natural position of the foot. The foot is bound to this piece by means of adhesive straps which may embrace the whole of the foot, and extend partly over the ankle, but not so as to arrest the circulation, as by the figure of eight bandage used around the ankle for making extension. The leg then, as seen in figure No. 1, is supported upon the cross-bar passing under the bracket (B) attached to the footpiece, and by resting upon the strap (N), pinned over the bars (A) on either side; while the extension and counter-extension is effected by means of the bar across the foot-piece below, and above by means of adhesive straps three inches in width, as indicated by the letter (M), which are attached to the sides of the leg, beginning just above the point of fracture and passing up to the wound around the cylinder (D), which is three and a half inches in length, and turned by means of an ordinary clock key, represented by the letter (E.) This cylinder is held in any position to which it may be turned, by a ratchet and wheel placed upon the upper surface of the bar, as indicated in the diagram.

It will be observed in figure No. 2, that there is no posterior splint as in the other diagram, but the leg is supported entirely by strips of muslin pinned over the bars on either side, which renders this apparatus more appropriate for the treatment of compound fractures in which the wound may be examined and dressed when necessary, by removing one or more of these strips which may be replaced by new ones without disturbing the fracture. The attachment of the foot-piece in this dressing does not in any particular differ from that of figure No. 1. The means of suspension is the same in both these dressings, which, by means of the pully at the letter (P), the patient is enabled to move his limb, or even his body, forward and back to the extent of the length of the bar upon which it glides, and by means of the cord playing over the under wheel in the same pully, the patient is able to flex and extend the knee by depressing or elevating the foot, which movement can be executed by a very slight effort on the part of the patient, while at the same time he can swing the leg from side to side to any extent within the space of the arches; and by means of the cords playing through the pulleys at (O.O.), the leg can be rotated to any extent, even to allow the patient to lie upon his side if he desires, without disturbing the fracture in the least. It will be observed in the diagrams that at the letter (G) there is a thimble, which can be made to slide upon the bar, by means of VOL. 7, NO. 7-34.