Dr. Eaton:—I want to add a word in favor of quick separation. For the last four or five years I have followed the practice of quick separation. If the separator fits property, and you use it with care, it does not cause much pain. As soon as you find you are inflicting pain, stop and rest a minute or two, and then you will be able to gain a little more space. The separator should not extend up to, or impinge upon the gum. A little gutta-percha under the bows of the separator will tend to keep it out of the gum and will also steady the separator. In some cases, where it is very difficult to keep the separator on the teeth, the placing of a little gutta-percha on the bows will overcome the difficulty, and the separator will stay in place, you can gain all the space required, and then the teeth are held firmly while you perform the operation of filling. Another thing: I have a number of dead laterals in my patients' mouths which I cannot account for in any other way than by slow separation. The pulps were not exposed at the time of filling, and yet a few months afterwards I found them dead. I believe the blood vessels were strangulated by holding the teeth in one position for so long a time.
Dr. Palmer:—I fear I did not express myself very clearly in regard to the different separators. I have frequently used Dr. Perry's separators, and have taken them off and put on Dr. Parr's; and I want to say, that while I do not find Dr. Parr's separator universal, as claimed, it is more nearly so than any other: and I can do with it what I cannot do with any other. But I have failed to find any patients like those Dr. Pinney speaks of, who prefer the separator to slower methods of separating. Many ask me never to use one again. I have found best results from using pieces of rubber and keeping them there until sufficient space is gained. I think the difficulty in Dr. Eaton's case was that the teeth were not kept sufficiently solid: if they had been held firmly, the difficulty would not have occurred.
TEETH A COMBINATION OF CONES.
At the usual monthly meeting of the Manchester (Eng.) Odontological Society, on December 10th, Mr. W. A. Hooton showed a collection of bones and specimens of ancient implements and pottery recently discovered in a limestone cavern at Deepdale, near Buxton, including remains of a brown bear, Celtic ox, deer, wild boar, fox, sheep, horse, and other animals.
The skull of the bear, which was in fine preservation, was found imbedded in a mass of stalagmite more than a foot thick. The specimen was an old one, and the teeth had been subjected to very rough usage, being excessively worn down and many of the pulp cavities exposed. The canines had all been fractured and afterwards worn smooth, with the exception of the right upper, which was of full length and encircled by a band of erosion. There was no trace of the second premolars.
The skull of a Celtic ox (bos longifrons) showed portions of skin in a petrified condition still adherent, and there was also half the lower jaw of a calf.
In the clay were found portions of a stag's antlers of great size, somewhat softened by exposure to moisture.
Although no human bones have so far been met with, the signs of man's presence were conclusive, and that probably during the ancient British and Roman periods. One antler had been divided, and the tip smoothed and sharply-pointed; another was shaped, apparently for use as a spear head; and close at hand a small carved bone ornament, much blackened, and some bits of bronze were found.
We know that fires were made in the cave, for fragments of charcoal are preserved in the stalagmite.