Page 248 - My FlipBook

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In a few rare cases the disease commenced in the fauces,
and on the inside of the cheek. This does not, for one mo-
ment, militate against our general principles, for foreign mat-
ter may, and does often adhere to the fauces, as the tartar of
the teeth, and, we are disposed to believe, that diseases in
the soft parts about the posterior part of the mouth are not
unfrequently produced from this cause. On the inside of the
cheek, and especially in the mouth of the stenonian duct,
tartar is often deposited, proving a frequent source of irrita-
tion. In conclusion, it is believed that we may fairly assert
that cancrum oris, in its causes, commencement, and first
stages, is identical with the common scurvy of the gums,
described by Hunter, Fox, Koecker and myself ; but that un-
der peculiar states of constitution, as before detailed, gan-
grene supervenes. One fact which positively demonstrates
the assertion, is, that hundreds of children will be affected
for a long time with what are called the first stages of this
complaint, without ever passing to a malignant form, and
when a malignant case does occur, it is seen in children
whose organic powers are so debilitated as hardly to sustain
In proof of what we have said, cases can be shown
life.
where, from a debilitated state of the system, gangrene has
even taken place from operation about the mouth in adults.
Jourdain relates of death in this way, from the extraction of
a tooth.* I will now take a brief notice of the treatment,
without detaining the reader with a lengthy disquisition of
the subject.
Treatment.

I only wish to speak of the local treatment of this com-
plaint, which should be prophylactic and remedial.

h
Jourdain, Tome 1, page 489.