Excerpt from Descriptive Anatomy of the Human Teeth It has been my object to systematize the nomenclature most in vogue with the profession, whenever practical, rather than to introduce new terms. However, the reader will find a. Few new terms, and possibly a few old ones, that are used differently from the former custom. The -terms up and down, to indicate direction or parts of teeth, are abandoned, because of their ambiguity. In a few instances, new forms of old words have been used, especially to avoid the terms inner, outer, backward, forward, etc., which are so often mis leading. The words mesial, distal, labial, buccal, lingual, etc., are used as adverbs of direction by adding ly, or the same thing is accomplished by the use of the preposition to. It is as easy to say of a cavity that it extends far beyond beyond, to, or nearly to, to the gingival line, as to say it ex tends up or'down, etc., and the meaning will not be mistaken; or to say that a cavity extends distally, or to the distal, or lingually, or to the lingual, instead of backward, or inward, either of which has different meanings in different situa tions. The best rule is to use no extraneous object in the designation of the parts of, or direction on, the surface of a tooth; but to confine the phraseology to the specific and well defined terms applied to its several parts. The back part of a molar would not mean the same relative part as the back part of an incisor. In many such ways the author has endeavored to systematize, and make more definite, the phraseology applied to the teeth without. Going to extremes knowing well that forms of language once in use can be im proved more easily than they can be displaced by new terms, though more exact. The absence of a Bibliography may be noted. The plan and object of this work has not seemed to call for many references to authorities. This does not imply, however, that authors who have preceded me, as Fox, Carabelli, Tomes, Wedl, Judd, Wortman, and many others, to whom we are greatly indebted, have been either overlooked or ignored. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.