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a few days. I have known a case in which a tooth had re-
mained out of the socket for six hours, and yet, when return-
ed, became again perfectly united. It will be necessary
when a tooth has been out of the socket for some time to in-
troduce a probe, and remove the coagulated blood ; the fang
may then be inserted with ease, and inflammation will be
avoided. But when the teeth have been loosened or beaten
out by a blow, and the alveolar processes have been injured,
or fractured, the teeth will never become perfectly fast ; in-
flammation arises, and nothing but extraction will effect the
cure.

section vn.

ODONTALGIA.

Tooth-Ache,

This is one of the most painful affections to which the
human system is liable. Its proximate causes are inflamma-
tion of the membrane lining the affected tooth or teeth, and
the transfer of nervous or rheumatic affections to the teeth.
It is well known to all surgeons, that inflammation taking
place in confined parts, as in those which are seated beneath
fascia, as in whitlow within the bones, &c. are on this ac-
count rendered far more painful than when they occur in un-
confined parts as in the cellular tissue near the surface of the
skin, &c. Inflammation is a simple operation of nature, set
up for the removal of obstructions, for the union of divided
parts, or to restore the integrity of an organ, which has lost
some of its substance, as in the formation of new bone
when a portion has been lost by necrosis, or to expel some