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cauterized it. . The cause of it was, a small portion of the
bone of the alveolus where the teeth are inserted, being al-
tered ; and to remedy it, we must cure these excrescences
as soon as possible ; for when they are small and rooted,
they are easy to cure, and will be found only a slimy hu-
mour, which, by little and little, hardens and makes it very
difficult to cure."
Blasius Obs. IX. Part VI. page 79, speaks of a cartilaginous
excrescence of the gums he cut with the scissors.
*Daniel, Miscell. Curios. Dec. 1. ann. 2, Obs. LV. page
379 ; Scutter, Obs. LXXXII. page 301 ; Donatus, Lib. V.
Hist. Miral. Med., speak also of similar excrescences cured
by the ligatures.
"If, after it is cured," says Albucalis, Lib. II, Chap.
XXXIII. this flesh begins to grow .again, as it sometimes
happens, it must be cut a second time, and burnt, and then it
will grow no more." What is here said by Albucasis is in
conformity to the principles of Ambrose Pare ; but for burn-
ing, the actual cautery is preferable to all other means.
The ligature and the two-edged instrument may be used
but circumstances ought to
for extirpating these tumours ;
direct us in the choice of the different means employed ; for
these operations require the greatest consideration. Tacitus
Luzitanus, Prax. admiral. Lib. 1, Obs. XCIII. page 22, " re-
ports a woman of a melancholic temperament having a hard
flesh on the gum of the lower jaw, which in the space of a
year became so large that it equalled an egg in size. It gave
her much pain, and exhaled a stinking smell, on account of a
fetid sanies that came out of a little ulcer in the tumour.
The most prompt remedy was to extirpate it ; but after the
operation the hoemorrhage was so great, which not having been
able to stop, the patient was lost.

* Jourdain. Tome 2, pages, 336, 33S.