Dr. B. Wood's plastic metallic filling : embraced in letters patent granted March 20, 1860, patent for the improvement allowed.

  • Wood, B. (Barnabas), 1819-1875.
Date:
[1864?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. B. Wood's plastic metallic filling : embraced in letters patent granted March 20, 1860, patent for the improvement allowed. 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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    Fifth—It expands upon solidification to an extent which is liable to crack a frail tooth and otherwise do injury, whereas in the Plastie Metallic Filling this difficulty is overcome. The third objection in respect to the high heat required, is removed by mixing with the' alloy a certain quantity of mercury-, which, being' itself fluid, lowers the fusing point of the mixture in proportion to the quantity used, but, when enough is added to be sufficiently fusible for the purpose, or as fusible as the Plastie Metallic Filling, it renders the compound very fragile and soft, so that the una- maigamated alloy will cut it in two, and also more susceptible to oxidation, and otherwise unlit for use; while the mercury having little chemical affinity for any of the other constituents, gradually eliminates itself, permeating the dentinal tubuli, and discoloring the tooth, the same as in the ease of tin.' amalgam pastes above referred to. Yet it is this mercurial compound which y resorted to. It is this which dentists mean when saying they have used fusible metal. It is this, compounded with the crude materials bought at i he shops with all their pernicious contaminations, that impostors are selling throughout the country at from fifty cents to two dollars an ounce, according to customers, and representing it as u Wood's Filling, or substantially the same,— -sometimes pretending to have stolen the receipt from my books.* Some are content with enough of the Plastic Metallic Filling to be able to show its patent stamp, undo]- cole* of which they can palm off a cheaper article on their patients. Am I not right in yielding to the demands of the community in the matter 01 requiring licenses, that all may know who are legitimately using the patent and who not ? *It is this also which, as I perceive from the last No. of the Dental Cosmos. (April, lS'Jl.) that Dr. J. D. While, the ■editor of that publication, seeks 10 identify with the Plastic Metallic Filling'. Oh the amalgam comp mm) us formerly prepared by himself by a series of experiments, aided by an Intelligent physician, (all which might have been spared had he consulted the books,) styling it •■l!'hitr\- Terra Metallic Compound, but which proved a failure, (as lie might have known in advance from the same -.1 he says: ''This metallic compound was USgd by heat, precisely as Dr. Wood's, and looked as much like it as possible. It was no better than amalgam, except that it contained less mercury, He then proceeds io confound the two, and. as by anticipation, to prejudice or paralizetfestimony. If Dr. J. D. White had analyzed the metaf which he would condemn by implication; if he had any knowledge of Chemistry and Metallurgy, or of the chat acteristics of metals; if he had read an.- of the Scentific Journals before referred to; if he had examined the specification of my patent, which was published in lull in a Scientific Journal at his door, and clearly distinguished Wood's Metal from mix- tures such as he •■ used in lv.i~' anil 1839. under the scientific name of Terra Metallic Compound ; if hi' h id even taken pains to compare side by side the physical characters of the two. instead of speaking as at venture and from memory; and if. with these, or anyone of these preliminaries, he had been actuated by a spark of fairness andjustice, he would nol have said thai it looked as much like it as possible,'1'' nor have intimated as strongly as possible that it was the same or a similar mercurial compound. lie would have squarely and truthfully pointed ou1 the difference for the information of his readers : and then in reply to the many dentists who, he says, have writteij him to know what we thought of Wood's plastic filling, if he disliked it and wished to influence them against it. and had nothing else to oppose: be might ha\ e told th'em, as he does: •• We do not find any use for plastie filling in our practice, because we. do not n - i anything bul gold, J fill's stopping, Oxichloride of Zinc, and tin: it' we required anything else m ovr practice, we would use the old-fashioned amalgam, or its modification known as Townsends, &c.; trusting to the ■' great influence of his example] (The Plastie Metallic Filling will get along, without our influence.) Dr. White does not allude to the patent, which would at once have reminded intelligent readers that the matei ial is • ibstantially different from that with which he would identify it. or no patent could have ,ie: ii obtained. He does not tan it contains mercury, he dare not say that, though it is easy to determine if it did. vet he conveys, and evidently seeks to convey this impression. ft is to be regretted that a publication, which, although it be bul an Adverlisment Tamer for the goods and material which its proprietor manufactures and oilers for sale, is still widely circulated and capable of usefulness, should be vrosii<nte.tl. whether at the behest of personal pique or interest, to the humiliating business of not merely withholding important information from the profession, but studiously misleading lis readers on subjects in regard to which they are most desirous of being informed. See Dr. B. Wood's Dental Circular for May 1864. Albany. .Y. York