Gutta percha, its discovery, history, and manifold uses.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gutta percha, its discovery, history, and manifold uses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/50 page 33
    IN DENTAL SLEGEDT, 38 in the construction of the bed and sockets for artificial teeth that the dentist will find its real value. Mr. Edwin Truman of the Haymarket, has invented and patented a process, by which the requisite firmness, durability, certainty of fit, and comfort to the wearer are attained wdth great success. He uses the pure white Gutta Percha,* moulding it over a frame of gold wire, by w'hich the teeth are held in place, and plating with gold every part of the surface that is subject to friction from the tongue or cheeks. The Gutta Percha, unlike other vegetable substances and ivory, is completely unaffected by saliva or acid, while its economy and lightness give it obvious advantage over gold itself. A full and interesting account of the process has been printed, entitled, “ The Construction of Artificial Teeth considered, with a view to the introduction of the patent Auroplastic principle.” Licences to work it are granted on easy terms by the patentee to respectable members of the profession. Mr. Truman very properly says: “I should not have patented the invention, but that I was determined it shoidd not be in the hands of those who have no right to the name of dentists. The cheapness of the Gutta Percha would have led to much mal-practice and im¬ position; and that which is good would, from mis-use and want of skill in the application, have been lost to the dentist, by hill¬ ing into bad repute.” VII. In connexion with the practice of Chemical and Electeical Science, this substance possesses obvious and peculiar advan¬ tages. Here we may be allowed to quote from a paper of great value, “ On the Scientific Applications of Gutta Percha,” read by Mr. H. Mercer, before the Liverpool Chemists’ Associ¬ ation, in September last. He says, “ Eor ladleing or pumping the caustic alkalies it supersedes the iron ladles, the lead or iron pump barrels, the leather clacks and buckets, and makes very good and durable washers for metal pipes, and lining for * This is important. We have heard complaints of the Grutta Percha used for filling teeth becoming offensive ; in these cases it has turned out that the material used was defective in purity. C
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image