Department of Dentistry. Editorial Staff. ROBERT E. O'CONNELL, D.D.S. THOMAS MORFFEW, D.D.S. J. O. HENNESSY, D.D.S CALVIN W. KNOWLES, D.D.S., M.D. CHARLES W. MILLS. A.B, M.D., D.D.S G.S BACKMAN, D.D.S O. A. HOOKER, DD S. D. H. LATIMER, D.D S. LUTHER A. TEAGUE, D.D.S. R. W. MEEK, D.D S. H. E. MINOR, D.D.S. M. E. CLARK, D.D.S. The Editors of this Department are not responsible for the views of contributors. All communications relating to the Editorial Department of Dentistry should be addressed to PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL, 1025 Sutter St., San Francisco. ARGYROL-SUPPLEMENTARY THERAPEUTICS. REPORT ON By THOS. FLETCHER, D. D. S., San Francisco. (Read before Cal. State Dental Association, June 9, 1903.) MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I desire to bring to your notice at this time, a new silver salt: argyrol or silver vitellin. This compound was first introduced to the medical profession at the annual meeting of the American Therapeutic Society, May 14, 1902, by Drs. Albert C. Barnes and Hermann Hille, of Philadelphia, at whose laboratory it is produced. Clinical reports on its therapeutics have appeared in the New York Medical Record, and many other medical journals, in which its value in infectious and inflammatory diseases has been recognized by eminent specialists and scientists. Argyrol is produced by a proteid derived from wheat, which is combined with silver. It occurs in dark brown, flocculent crystals, which contain thirty per cent of silver. It is freely soluble in water in all proportions, forming stable solutions. It does not coagulate albumen, nor precipitate chlorides, hence it is not escharotic, even in its strongest solutions. It is non-irritant; a twenty per cent solution, which is equal in silver strength to a ten per cent silver nitrate solution, may be dropped in the normal eye without producing irritation or discomfort. It soothes inflamed mucous membranes, and the absence of coagulating effects enables the solution to penetrate to the submucous stratum, in which it supercedes all other silver salts. A simple and conclusive experimental test of its penetrating qualities was made by, immersing a strand of heavy catgut in a one per cent solution over night, and on the following morning a section of catgut demonstrated its complete impregnation with silver. The integrity and flexibility of the catgut were not impaired. Its therapeutic value has been demonstrated in my practice in cases of chronic alveolar abscess, which have failed to yield to recognized methods of treatment, and it has promptly given satisfactory results in solutions of from twenty to fifty per cent. It has proved effective in the treatment of pyorrhea alveolaris, gingivitis, and other suppurative and inflammatory conditions of the oral tissues. I am now using a two per cent solution in a long-standing case of empyemia antrum, and have observed a marked improvement from the commencement of the treatment. Fresh stains on linen, etc., may be removed by hot water; when they have become dry they should be moistened with a saturated solution of potassium iodide, after which they wash out readily. Stains on the fingers are readily removed by washing with soap and water. We recognize the value of the germicidal action of silver salts; and in Argyrol I believe that we have an ideal product, possessing in the highest degree the desirable properties without the objectionable features of the numerous preparations which have preceded it. It is freely soluble, readily and deeply absorbed, noncoagulating, non-irritating, and prompt in arrest of suppurative conditions. AFTER an epidemic lasting over a year the United States quarantine officers declare Manila free from cholera. During this period one hundred thirty thousand three hundred sixty-two cases and eighty two thousand nine hundred fifty-five deaths have been reported. -The Physician and Surgeon. DIET IN RIGGS' DISEASE (PYORRHEA BY J. WARREN ACHORV, M. D., Boston, Mass. Read before the Northeastern Dental Assoc ation at its Annual Meeting, October 16, 1902.) If water were the only food required, other things being equal, every one's health should be equal to every other one's. But things never are equal, and so there is a decided difference between water and its effects and what this or that one eats or drinks; something makes this one fat and that one lean, this one plethoric and that one anemic; this one rheumatic and that one lithemic or asthmatic. Inheritance, habits, work, surroundings, temperament, play, food, and drink, all have to be considered in the sum of the things that finally get a well man out of order. If the stool of health requires three legs before one can sit on it safely, and one of these legs is found to be lame at some time, will you not agree with me that, in a chance lot of cases, it is more often found to be due to something eaten than to anything else? Most of us go on eating and drinking and doing things we learned to do unconsciously as children or acquired in some other thoughtless way, without regard to the aftereffects, never once seriously asking ourselves whether as individuals this is the right thing for us, until some fine morning disease drives us to consult a doctor, and we find we are in for it, with no better reason or excuse than this, that we have taken too much for granted. THE PERSONAL EQUATION IN EATING. Many people eat seven things right and in the right way, but Heaven only knows what they will do when it comes to that eighth thing, that something they like in particular, that has six inches of taste good" in it for them and twenty-three feet of stomach-ache afterward for solution. It may be this eighth thing alone that plays havoc with their digestion and metabolism. Controlling the indiscriminate use of some one food or class of foods will work wonders occasionally. One person may eat a thing objectionable for the average individual, and never hear from it, because for him there is nothing objectionable about it; his neighbor, looking on, thinks he can do the same, not appreciating the individual factor in the equation, and so it goes until they are all at it. It is all summed up in the expression, "Oh, that won't hurt you." There was probably a time when a man could eat anything in sight, simply because he lived, like any other animal or vegetable, in the open air and did not have much to choose from; his diet was sustaining, but a simple one. Now he is fenced in by stone buildings, he walks on stone streets, and looks out upon the world through a hole in the wall. Is it any wonder, in view of all the changes to which he has been subjected, in view of the innumerable things he is doing in a hurry, and the foods he is eating in a hurry, brought from all parts of the world and cooked in all sorts of ways, that his digestion fails, that he gets out of tune or out of proportion and finds himself troubled with some chronic ailment, the result of misfit food, waste in the system or something worse? What one can eat with impunity at twenty is not necessarily the food that fits best at forty; with each decade the food that one eats would better be modified to satisfy special indications or changes incident to age and occupation. Would it not be a wise precaution for every one to consult his physician once a year, at least, and let him say what, if anything, is wrong with the machine, the way it is run, or the food it is given? We all go to our tailor, our hatter, our shoeman, and may I not say to our dentist (for I have an idea that people go more readily to the dentist than to the doctor), with fair regularity, and why not go to the chief engineer of the body for inspection and a certificate good for six months or a year? Preventive medicine is the only true way to practice the art, but the world, as you know-the Western world -does not think so. Here we work at our professions, dentists and physicians alike, with the cart before the horse. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BALANCE. If a man's lung capacity is what it should be compared with his weight, and his lung capacity is not below the standard for his height; if his blood and urine are right under the microscope, and all his eliminative organs are acting normally; if his food and drink are sufficient to maintain his health and strength against his work and habits; if he is physically sound and at peace with himself, he is as nearly perfect as any man can hope to be in this world. My defini tion for all this is "physiological balance," something all persons should strive to keep if they have it, or to attain by right life and living if they haven't it. A man five feet eight inches in height, and twenty-two years old, should have a lung capacity of two hundred and thirty to two hundred and forty cubic inches, and weigh one hundred and fifty-five pounds. For a woman five feet three inches in height, nineteen years old, the lung capacity should be one hundred and fifty cubic inches, and weight one hundred and thirty pounds. I simply give these measurements that you may realize even while I am speaking how far the average individual is from the ideal standard. Chronic disorders, such as rheumatism, lithemia (American gout), real gout, dyspeptic asthma, certain kinds of headache, gastric hyperacidity, biliousness, and acne, are recognized by physicians generally as due in part, and in some instances entirely, to disorders of digestion, the result of misfit foods or failure of elimination, from what ever cause. NUTRITION AND RIGGS' DISEASE. It was while engaged in rectifying some of this sort by dietetic treatment and other associated means when indicated that I incidentally treated pyorrhea alveolaris and succeeded in relieving some cases and curing others. I did this unconsciously in the beginning, Riggs' disease being a local disorder to my mind at that time. Sometimes the case was one of obesity complicated by rheumatism; sometimes one of hyperacidity associated with headaches or constipation; sometimes lithemia or biliousness was the fundamental symptom, and sometimes there was no diathesis, the patient was out of tune mentally and had lost his balance physically from overwork or worry, or was handicapped by a small pair of lungs, or by a weak heart and small digestive organs, that in turn affected his elimination or nutrition; in a word, the machinery was not adequate to the mill in which it was set up; and here is where this idea of balance finds its greatest application. If the case under consideration was one of the uric acid variety, as the majority of them were, I restricted the use of acid for a time, whether that found in meat, fish, vegetables, or condiments. When this diathesis was not present either in the family history or in |