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from the gums, and to receive its blood from the same source
;
and when the gums have been diseased, the lining of the
socket and the covering of the fang become sooner or later
affected ; after the gums and the membrane lining the socket
and covering the fang become affected, the teeth become
loose, feel tender, matter is discharged around them from
under the gums ; pain begins to be felt more or less before
this time, depending upon the peculiar irritability of the
gums, which differs considerably in many persons. Upon
examining them, we usually observe that they are red,
swelled, and very tender, often covered with a dirty, yellow-
ish matter, resembling the yellow fur upon the tongue in
some states of fever. They bleed on the slightest touch, the
use of a hard brush, eating any thing hard, or even sucking
the teeth will produce bleeding; constitutional symptoms
at times take place, and the health of the patients is often
greatly affected. The gums sooner or later begin to retire
from the teeth and are absorbed away, which exposes the
fangs of the teeth. The alveoli also are absorbed away, un-
til finally the teeth having become entirely loosened and push-
ed out of their sockets, which gradually fill up at the bottom,
one after another drop out, until the patient loses all his teeth.
Often his health greatly improves, and he is almost rejoiced
that his teeth are gone. There is one circumstance which I
do not know to have been noticed by any author, and it is this,
that while the tooth is very loose, the gum and soc?jet entire-
ly absorbed away, so that the tooth merely is confined by the
membrane at the end of the fang, and by the nerve, blood-
vessels, &c. ; yet it will be apparently alive, and its inter-
nal circulation will be vigorous and healthy. This shows the
wisdom of the great Author of Nature, who has provided the
teeth with two sources of support, so that if one fails, a
measurable assistance is obtained from the other.