Observations on the history, use, and construction of obturateurs : or, what have hitherto been called in this country, artificial palates, with cases, illustrative of recent improvements / by James Snell.

  • Snell, James
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the history, use, and construction of obturateurs : or, what have hitherto been called in this country, artificial palates, with cases, illustrative of recent improvements / by James Snell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of their talents to this subject. After having snatch¬ ed a fellow creature from the ravages of disease, they abandon him to the care of one, whose mechanical genius enables him to make an instru- ment which will supply the deficiency only, in¬ stead of placing him under the care of an artist who has devoted himself to the study of these lesi¬ ons, and who is not only able to construct an instru¬ ment which will supply the deficiency, but at the same time one, that will not impede nature in her curative intentions. Authors have transmitted to us various patterns of mechanical contrivances, all of which have, in this country, been erroneously called Artificial Palates, but in France, are known under the more appropriate appellation of Obturateurs,— a term derived from the latin word obturo, to stop up. We are indebted to the French artists for the most ingenious of these instruments, and likewise for the greater part of the improvements that have been made from the time of the original sponge Palate described by Ambroise Pare. It is much to be regretted, that, till lately, no improvement of any importance appears to have been made, to which we can attach the name of