99

The Practical Dentist

This appeared in the 1890 publication

The Practical Dentist

published by C. W. Munson

W. E. GORHAM, M. D., IN ITEMS OF INTEREST

Do you wish to extract bad roots painlessly ? Being aware that the

key is unpopular and the forceps in favor, I have never met a

dental advocate of the

corkscrew

. A middle-aged woman

requested me to remove three deep and painful roots from highly

inflamed gums. I extracted the two easier with the forceps, when,

leaping from the chair, the patient relieved her mind thus:

―

I caan't

an' I shaant! I might's well go 'ome'n die, as ter die 'ere. I 'a'n't slep'

fer three weeks, 'n I'm erbout onsoddered.

‖

―

I am going to remove that root, so you'll go home happy and

sleep.

‖

―

Wall, yer can't wi' them pinchers. Carn't yer pull it wi' a corkscrew

?

― ―

O! yes, easily.

‖ ―

Then, dropping the forceps down my coat sleeve, I feigned to

adjust the corkscrew to the root, which I extracted with the forceps

without a sign of pain. The forceps again entered my sleeve, and,

when turning from the spittoon, she saw me calmly viewing the root on the corkscrew,

the halo of happiness on that woman's face ought to have been contagious, as she

exclaimed :

―

Yer couldn't 'ave got it wi' the pinchers, could ye? It never hurt me one

mite.

‖

Moral

—

That woman evidently regarded the corkscrew as an instrument designed to

give pleasure

—

an instrument dear to her soul, and the last she saw ere leaving home.

Verily, the ways of men (and women) are astonishing.