A dictionary of medical terminology, dental surgery, and the collateral sciences

Front matter

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Preface To The Third Edition

In the preface to the second edition of this work sufficient has been said, by its lamented author, of its objects, and the sources from which the materials composing it were obtained.

Since the death of Prof. Chapin A. Harris no new edition of the Dictionary has been published, although the want of one has long been felt, not alone by the dental practitioner, but by the dental student. To supply this want has been the chief object of the editor, and in fulfilling it, he has endeavored to make such corrections and additions, as the rapid progress of Dental and the Collateral Sciences demanded. These additions and corrections are, necessarily, in a work of this kind, scattered through its text, and as it involves many details, it is probable some errors may be found, for which it is to be hoped the difficulties attending its progress will form some apology.

One great difficulty has been to prevent the work from exceeding the limits of one volume, and for this reason many articles have necessarily been condensed.

Between two and three thousand new words have been added to the present edition, and additions and corrections made to the definitions of many others. The doses of the more prominent medicinal agents have been added, and it is hoped that the work will be found worthy of its title.

Vlll PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

Many of the old formulae, which have not been sanctioned by. an enlarged experience, have been omitted, principally those of powders, pastes, and washes for the teeth and gums, while others have been retained for their intrinsic merits.

As the description of the treatment of many of the diseases of the dental organs, and the manner of performing certain operations, is the same in the former editions as in the author's Principles and Practice of Dental Surgery, such have been omitted, and reference made to the work in which they are contained.

The intention of the editor has been to do justice to all, and he wishes to express the obligations he is under for a number of articles describing recent inventions, the manner of preparing certain materials, &c.

All the best works accessible to him, and relating to such subjects as are essential to a work of this kind, have been consulted, and free use made of them. His acknowledgments are due to Dunglison's and Hoblyn's Medical Dictionaries, Thomas' and Cleaveland's Pronouncing Medical Dictionaries, "Wood and Bache's U. S. Dispensatory, Mayne's Expository Lexicon, and Ure's Dictionary of the Arts.

F. J. S. Gorgas.

Baltimore, 1867.

Preface To The Second Edition

The steady and constantly increasing demand for this work having long since exhausted the first edition, the author is encouraged to believe that he was not altogether mistaken in his opinion that a Dictionary containing satisfactory definitions of the words and technicalities belonging to Dental Surgery, as well as to the other branches of Medicine and to the Collateral Sciences, was needed. But in the preparation of the first edition he omitted many of the terms belonging to the last-mentioned departments of science, fearing they might be regarded as out of place in a lexicon designed principally for the student and practitioner of Dentistry. Subsequent reflection has convinced him that a more extended view of the subject was necessary, since the scope of professional education for the Dentist has become so widened that general Medicine and Collateral Science are now, to a considerable extent, embraced in the curriculum of Dental study. He has, therefore, introduced into the present edition, not only the words and phrases purposely omitted in the first, but also those that have subsequently been added to the literature of the above-mentioned department of science, thus making it a complete Dictionary of Medicine as well as of Dental Surgery.

X PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The present edition contains about eight thousand more words than the first. The introduction of these without very greatly increasing its size, which the author was anxious to avoid, rendered it necessary to rewrite and compress the heavier and more elaborate articles into much narrower limits than were originally assigned to them, and to strike out the Bibliographical and the Biographical departments altogether. The last was done the more willingly, as a work embracing these subjects, by a very able pen, has already been announced as in preparation. The character of the book in this respect being changed, a corresponding alteration of title became necessary. All the words, technicalities, and other subjects belonging to Dental Surgery proper, have been retained, and all new terms, descriptions of subsequent discoveries, and improvements in the art and science, have been carefully added. Numerous synonyms have also been introduced, and it is believed that no important word, in any of the specialties of Medicine, which has at all passed into general use, has been refused a place and a minute and careful definition in the present edition of the work.

The author has, of course, as stated in the preface to the first edition, made free use of the various Dictionaries of Medicine, Science, and Art ; among which he would particularly mention, Hooper's, Cooper's, Dungiison's, Gardener's, Palmer's, Hoblyn's, Motherby's, the first three hundred pages of Mayne's Expository Lexicon, now in progress of publication ; the French Dictionary of Medicine, Surgery, Pharmacy, Physics, Chemistry, and Natural History ; Brande's Encyclopaedia ; lire's Dictionary of the Arts, and Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary. It was his intention to give due credit to each author for all original matter taken