The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-10-11

Did tho Dentists XIII MIR. Gardiner.
Of Health will investigate the cause of the
death of Mr.. Gardiner, who was recently
buried without a proper certiication of tho
facts which preceded his demise. He was
attended. it appears, by q physician who
holds a theory that some unsatisfactory
dentistry is to blame as tho real source of
the evil; but it is only certain that all the
facts are not known and that it is to the
interest of the public generally that they
should be known. DR.. Guys theory is that
arsenic put in hollow tooth to kill the
nerve and so arrest pain was tho first fact
in the morbid train that ended in a horri-
BILE death; but there are many points in the
case which seem, in the light of present
knowledge, inconsistent with that theory.
Yet in the absence of that theory there is
no explanation whatever of the death; and
the authorities consequently have before
them case in which the death
is unaccounted for in any proper
tributed to u practice which is certainly
not uncommon with dentists. However it
may be now, there was time certainly
when dentists universally used arsenic in
such cases as this. For thirty or forty years
they put small quantity of arsenic on the
denuded nerve OF an aching tooth-plug-
ged it in with bit of wax or some equiva-
lent substance, and SO left it and the sue
cess of the proceeding justified them in
considering that a safe and successful
practice. How could arsenic in the cavity
of tooth be absorbed or how, if properly
put in, could it get out to reach an absorb
ing surface since the material with which it
saliva? They never had any cases in which
it did harm, and so they went on. Has that
practice-pursued SO long-come prom
inently before tho public for reproba-
ton in the case of Mr.. Gardiner? There
are not many facts to sustain that view.
Two dentists saw the tooth-one in Brook
Ign and one in Boston. The Brooklyn
dentist used creosote and not arsenic; but
he took out cork plug which he found in
the tooth. Did he thereby uncover the
arsenic put in by the Boston dentist? He
reports finding temporary filing of cot
ton, which he took out. There was ut the
time he saw the tooth no evidence of phage-
dcnic liberation, and all the story Of the
horrible progress OF the malady is subse-
quent to that. But there is q general Diff
Guilty in the way OF believing that arsenic,
even if there was arsenic in tho tooth, could
cause the troubles which occurred and not
cause other troubles. If the arsenic acted
locally 1t would produce other effects
than those found; it it acted generally,
and alter absorption, upon what principle
OF it's action would its effect be confined to
the mouth and throat Here is physician
who maintains that man had enough
of the whole mass of the tissues which con-
stitute the mouth and throat, and yet he did
not die from the arsenic. Ho died, as this
doctor reports, from ''scpticamia"-from
the absorption into the blood of the poison
Gus putrid products of the liberation. Yet
palmer report declares that the liberation
in its course opened large vessel and that
the patient actually died from hemorrhago.
Even in tho most palpable details Of this
case, therefore, there is contradiction and
uncertainty, and the authorities should as-
surodly push tho inquiry into the cause of
death.
Peculiar Weather.
T.l 4