Page 258 - My FlipBook
P. 258
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256
" My dear,
" I have been so ill since I wrote you last, that I have not
been able to answer your kind letter. As I can express
myself easier to you than to a stranger, I shall endeavour to
give you some idea of my present state, and you can give
my letter to Mr. Koecker. Constant faint gnawing pains in
my gums, membrane of the mouth, and cheeks, accompanied
with considerable swelling of the latter, which are always
blotched, inflamed and irritated, just in the way some peo-
ple's faces are affected when suffering tooth-ache my very
;
nose is sWelled and inflamed, and the muscles of the under
part of my face so contracted and drawn upwards, that I
cannot swallow any thing but liquids. My mouth is con-
tracted with slimy saliva. In bed I have constant twitches
in my gums, like what I could figure electricity ; sometimes
my face and gums burn like fire, and sometimes feel as if
every nerve and blood-vessel were filled with ice, and the
sheets near my mouth are wet with saliva ; all these sensations
often run down behind my ears, to my neck and arms, and at
these times I have a great hurry and agitation of spirits, and
aching across the breast and heart. To me, one of my great-
est tortures, is the extraordinary inflation of gums, particular-
ly towards the roof of the mouth ; they feel as if they abso-
lutely tore from the bone, hove up as it were with wind,
and my jaws feel twice too large for my mouth, the pressure
against my face is such. The same sensation often pro-
ceeds to my cheek bones, which increases the swelling of the
muscles, and the dragging up of the under jaw. I must now
go back in my history, that Mr. Koecker may know the pro-
gress of the last five years of my continual misery ; but, un-
luckily, I fear it is impossible to make any one understand
my sufferings, they are too various and complicated. You
256
" My dear,
" I have been so ill since I wrote you last, that I have not
been able to answer your kind letter. As I can express
myself easier to you than to a stranger, I shall endeavour to
give you some idea of my present state, and you can give
my letter to Mr. Koecker. Constant faint gnawing pains in
my gums, membrane of the mouth, and cheeks, accompanied
with considerable swelling of the latter, which are always
blotched, inflamed and irritated, just in the way some peo-
ple's faces are affected when suffering tooth-ache my very
;
nose is sWelled and inflamed, and the muscles of the under
part of my face so contracted and drawn upwards, that I
cannot swallow any thing but liquids. My mouth is con-
tracted with slimy saliva. In bed I have constant twitches
in my gums, like what I could figure electricity ; sometimes
my face and gums burn like fire, and sometimes feel as if
every nerve and blood-vessel were filled with ice, and the
sheets near my mouth are wet with saliva ; all these sensations
often run down behind my ears, to my neck and arms, and at
these times I have a great hurry and agitation of spirits, and
aching across the breast and heart. To me, one of my great-
est tortures, is the extraordinary inflation of gums, particular-
ly towards the roof of the mouth ; they feel as if they abso-
lutely tore from the bone, hove up as it were with wind,
and my jaws feel twice too large for my mouth, the pressure
against my face is such. The same sensation often pro-
ceeds to my cheek bones, which increases the swelling of the
muscles, and the dragging up of the under jaw. I must now
go back in my history, that Mr. Koecker may know the pro-
gress of the last five years of my continual misery ; but, un-
luckily, I fear it is impossible to make any one understand
my sufferings, they are too various and complicated. You
