A treatise on the use of A.J. Watts' crystal gold / by W.H. Dwinelle.

  • Dwinelle, W. H.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the use of A.J. Watts' crystal gold / by W.H. Dwinelle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    A TREATISE USE OF CRYSTAL GOLD Gold is indispensable to commerce ; is one of the greatest incentives to action and to enterprise ; is an emblem of royalty and power; is universally coveted, and is the father of many a crime; it enriches our language with some of its most glowing adjectives, swells the remedial catalogue of medicines, and finds valuable uses throughout the whole range of the arts and sciences. But nowhere, and in no way, is it at the same time such a needful luxury and a continual comfort as in our Art. Here it realizes its highest end, and becomes exalted in its power to save, while it intimately mingles, and becomes permanently associated with living organs. Nature herself seems to have kindred feelings towards it, and permits it in such close proximity to her vital organs, that it sometimes nearly reposes upon blood-vessels, whose pulsations almost beat against it. At other times it harmlessly forms an arch under which delicately tissued nerves send many a subtle current of feeling. (J old ever has been, and probably ever will be, regarded as the best material for plugging and arresting carious teeth. Its capability of being attenuated into foil or finely divided crystals, and these afterwards of being consolidated into a united mass, its density when properly worked, its indestructibility, its color and non-corrosive quality, render it superior to any other material for the purpose of filling cavities of the teeth, where it will resist with impunity the ever varying and vitiating fluids of the mouth. The history, character, and uses of Gold Foil, are too well known to our Profession to require any detailed description, at this time. It is well known that its desirable qualities for our purpose, depend entirely upon its purity, and the manner in which it is manufactured—purity, however, always being an essential element of its goodness. It is unne- cessary to refer to the excellences of the article for the purpose for which it is intended. In the hands of the skillful operator, it is daily restoring the perishing organs of the mouth to permanent health and usefulness. It has done more towards elevating our Profession to its present high position than any other cause. I have no inclination, nor intention, of speaking disparagingly of it. All that could be done with it, has been lono- since accomplished, and that is much, and far more than the Fathers in our Profession could have anticipated. In comparing it with Crystal Gold, the objections to it must only be of a negative character. Slightly changing a familiar declaration, I may say, not that I prize the one less, but the other more ! It is not that foil does not accomplish much, but that Crystal Gold accomplishes more. Foil, by skilful manip- ulation, may be made comparatively solid. Crystal Gold, by the same