The T. A. Hardgrove Collection is organized into two groups. The first group (boxes 1-6) contains general correspondence, arranged chronologically. The second group (boxes 6-9) contains incomplete and undated correspondence, case histories, miscellaneous personal notes, articles, speeches and speech notes, press releases, miscellaneous professional memoranda, committee reports, convention reports and agendas, printed material, newspaper clippings, and two volumes of questions which were circulated among state dentists. Also present is one scrapbook which is largely duplicated by material within the boxes, but which were retained because of its value as a capsule on the fluorine movement.
Tic Douloureux letters are predominately correspondence with other doctors, mostly general practitioners and dentists, and also with sufferers of the disease who are seeking aid or advice. Tic Douloureux is a disease which afflicts middle age and older people who have had typhoid fever or have a family history of the disease. It is extremely painful and affects the cheeks and face. No deformation is involved. An Oct. 16, 1939 letter from Hardgrove to Cutter outlines treatment, consisting of several intravenous injections of typhoid vaccine of increasing amounts up to a practical maximum. The treatment was to be repeated quarterly for about a year at the end of which time both the pain and the tic should be gone permanently. Previous treatments included Vitamin B injection, alcohol injection, and the extreme--an operation. None except the latter had proved satisfactory.
The collection's correspondence is, as a rule, repetitious. The two sections labeled Articles and Committee Reports would appear to be of much more consequence to the serious researcher in either of the two fields which Dr. Hardgrove was prominent. The committee reports regarding the Fluorine Committee in particular are of interest because they are quite complete. The step-by-step program of the fluoridation movement can be traced for Wisconsin and, to some extent, other states as well.
