Reply to the 'Additional strictures', contained in the first number of the Quarterly Medical Review, on the Principles of dental surgery, etc. : Containing various remarks on the teeth, especially on the perniciouseffects of tartar, and other causes of diseases of the teeth and gums / [Leonard Koecker].

Leonard Koecker

Date:: 1827

Credit: Reply to the 'Additional strictures', contained in the first number of the Quarterly Medical Review, on the Principles of dental surgery, etc. : Containing various remarks on the teeth, especially on the perniciouseffects of tartar, and other causes of diseases of the teeth and gums / [Leonard Koecker]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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his bretheren, in thus circumscribing it to the punch, pelican, key, and a’'few pairs of forceps.”—‘‘The truth, however, is, that the punch, is quite superceded by the lever, the pelican is aot known only toa few as a kind of curiosity; the key improved, at least in the way in which I use it, acts both as key and forceps. As to forceps I can decidedly speak in regard to my own practice, and those 1 am acquainted with, that they form the principal in- struments of extraction, and are now made on the best mechanical principles, and adapted, individually, for every situation and state of the teeth.” I reply that neither the above quotations from my volume, nor any other parts of it, refer to the instruments used in London, exclusively, or in any other particular place or country. My statement is, in every instance, general ; it alludes to the practice of the civilized nations of Europe and America. Besides it cannot be unknown to the critic, if he really has been in France, and is not totally ignorant of the literature of that country, that the instruments above referred to are very frequently used there, and are more or less noticed by the greater part of the modern French authors on Dental Surgery, as MW. Gariot, Traité des Maladies de la Bouche ; M. Laforque Theor. et Prat. de lart du Dentist; and many others. Iam, however, willing to confess my entire ignorance of the critic’s dental practice, for which I certainly deserve his censure, considering his great importance, and the high rank he holds in his own opinion. 3 The reviewer is struck at the “enormous number of in- struments,’ which I employ for the complete performance of some few nice operations ;—and he adds ; «Whether Mr. Koecker has bestowed the necessary attention on the manipulation of these (alluding to some instruments), I have no means of judging, as in every thing practical, or that might prove useful, he has studied a most profound silence.” The glaring injustice of this accusation, must be evident to every professional] reader of the “ Principles of Dental Surgery ;” for, althoughI have not givenany engravings of my apparatus, I trust I have, in every instance, where it was possible, sufficiently explained the principles necessary for its application. As a proof of my sincere endeavour to extend the knowledge of my improvements, | way add, that not a few Surgeons of the highest respectability, in this country, as well as in the United States of America, are in possession of a great part of my peculiar instruments. Be- sides, the whole of my apparatus has been, and still is, open to the inspection of Surgeon-Dentists, and of the medical profession. :

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