this inferior tin foil is better than silver." ("The Practical Family
Dentist," Dewitt C. Warner, New York, 1853.)

"Tin made into leaves is employed as a stopping material; with
sufficient experience it can be elaborated into the finest lines and
cracks, and against almost the weakest walls, and teeth are sometimes
lost with gold that might have been well preserved with tin. I saw an
effective tin stopping in a tooth of Cramer's, the celebrated musical
composer, which had been placed there thirty-five years ago by Talma,
of Paris." ("The Odontalgist," by J. Paterson Clark, London, 1854.)

Refer to what the same author said in 1836.

"Tin is the best substitute for gold, and can often be used in badly
shaped cavities where gold cannot." (Prof. Harris, 1854.)

"Tin is better than any mixture of metals for filling teeth." (Professor
Tomes, London, 1859.)

In 1860 a writer said that "such a change may take place in the mouth as
to destroy tin fillings which had been useful for years, and that tin
was not entirely reliable in any case; it must not be used in a tooth
where there is another metal, nor be put in the bottom of a cavity and
covered with gold, for the tin will yield, and when fluids come in
contact with the metals, chemical action is induced, and the tin is
oxidized. Similar fillings in the same mouth may not save the teeth
equally well. Filling is predicated on the nature of decay, for only on
correct diagnosis can a proper filling-material be selected."

Reviewing the foregoing statement, we believe that a change may take
place in the mouth which will destroy gold fillings (or the
tooth-structure around them) much oftener than those of tin. It is now
every-day practice to put tin into the same tooth with another metal; if
the bottom of a cavity is filled with tin properly packed, it will not
yield when completed with gold, and if the gold is tight, the oral
fluids cannot come in contact with both metals and produce chemical
action or oxidation; similar fillings of gold in the same mouth do not
save the teeth equally well. Should we expect more of tin in this
respect, or discard it because it is not always better than gold?

In Article V of the "New Departure Creed," Dr. Flagg says, "Skillful and
scrupulous dentists fill with tin covered with gold, thereby preventing
decay, pulpitis, death of the pulp, and abscess, and thus save the
teeth."

In 1862 Mr. Hockley, of London, mentions tin for filling, and