Journal of the history of dentistry
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Biography Historical Article
Advertising in Heroic Couplets: Laughing Gas by Dentist W.J.A. DeLancey.
Dr. William J. A. ⋯ Inventor of a tooth powder and an electric dental motor, DeLancey became a statewide leader of Freemasonry. Unfortunately, both his vocational dental library and his avocational Masonic one were incinerated by a house fire in 1892. As a lifelong professional dentist, DeLancey was widely regarded as a true pillar of the communities and of the Masonic Temples in which he had served--first in Illinois (Galesburg and then Centralia) and finally in Williamsport, Indiana.
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Historical Article
The nitrous oxide "dream" of Cora Gray: a dental anesthesia story of 1884.
In the September 1884 issue of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly magazine, a fictional dramatic short story was published concerning the dental use of nitrous oxide. Entitled, "Cora Gray," it was written by the well-known American journalist and poet John Whittaker Watson (1815-1848), who authored hundreds of sentimental, tragic and dramatic poems, serials and stories concerning the destitute lives and deaths of downtrodden young women of that time. His greatest poetic effort, "Beautiful Snow," (1869) tells of a young prostitute who freezes to death in a snow bank. ⋯ It explicitly depicts the administration of nitrous oxide and the resulting erotic visions and hallucinations that the young patient experiences. We make reference to other cautionary scientific writings from the late 1800s, in order to point out and clarify the potentially negative repercussions of nitrous oxide when administered to female dental patients without the presence of a third party. The ethics and propriety of anesthesia administration remain as perennial questions in dentistry to this day.
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Biography Historical Article
"They'll Do it Every Time"--four early dental Comic strips by Jimmy Hatlo.