Old_&_Rare Books

It Came From the Stacks

In honor of everyone using their time this summer to study for their board exams, this month’s “It Came From the Stacks” post is about a board review text.  However, you might not want to use it for your boards as it was published 107 years ago.

Underwood & Gabell’s Aids to Dental Surgery is one volume in their “Student’s aids series.”  The book is small and as the author states in his preface, “condense(s) into a concise form that department of the science of dental surgery which is capable of such treatment.”  Underwood states that the books concentrates on matters which are likely to be included on examinations.  “If the book smooths the path of any of the large body of dental students, with whose education and welfare my daily work has been and is so largely concerned, I shall feel that its object has been accomplished.”

Within this slim, 126 page book, the authors cover the breadth of dental science including bacteriology, hygiene, injuries and illnesses of the pulp, periosteum, mucous membrane, and jaws, extraction of teeth, and diseases arising from diseases of the teeth and gums.

aids to dental surgery

LSUHSC-NO Libraries is lucky enough to hold one of only 12 copies of this work in the world.  If you’d like to come take a look at this book or any of our more recent board review materials, please contact us or stop in to see us.

Tags: , , | Dental Library, Dentistry, It came from the stacks | Permalink | Comments Off on It Came From the Stacks | Posted Friday, July 11, 2014 by Schiavo, Julie

It came from the stacks

While moving the dental books and journals we came across several books we’d like to tell everyone about in a series of posts in the continuing saga of “It Came From The Stacks” (insert foreboding music here…)

Our first book is a classic of dentistry from the Dental Library’s Old and Rare Collection.  This over sized book, published in 1844, is by Paul B Goddard and is titled The Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology of the Human Teeth; with the most approved methods of treatment, including operations, and the method of making and setting artifical teeth; with thirty plates, also known as “Goddard on the Teeth”.

Goddard on the Teeth

Goddard on the Teeth

When “Goodard on the Teeth” was published, it was described in a review in American Journal of Medical Sciences as a “practical treatment on the subject of the teeth”.  It is praised by the reviewer: “… the work is got up in the handsomest manner.  The plates are indeed the best specimens of lithography we have seen executed in this country.”  This book contains some remarkable images head and neck anatomy, microscopic structure of teeth. dental equipment, a four step pictorial description of extracting teeth using a key, and various forms of artificial teeth and plates, among others.

Goddard plate

This is a very interesting book that is exemplary of the beginnings of modern dentistry.  If you would like to take a look at it in person, please contact the Dental Library and make arrangements to come see it.  We’d love to share our old and rare treasures with you.

Tags: , | Dental Library, Dentistry, It came from the stacks | Permalink | Comments Off on It came from the stacks | Posted Monday, April 14, 2014 by Schiavo, Julie