Page 273 - My FlipBook

271
very frightful aspect. The gums were partially destroyed,
and the remaining portion of them either gangrenous and
sloughing, or in a state of inflammation and suppuration.
The disease had already extended to the maxillary bones,
and their osseous structure as well as the periosteum of their
cavities, was more or less under the influence of inflamma-
tion, suppuration, and mortification ; but more especially the
left side of the upper jaw, which was already much increased
in size, accompanied with a correspondent swelling of the
cheeks. The face was flushed, and the skin had a bloated
erysipelatous appearance, and the patient suffered excessive
pain of the whole mouth, the jaw-bones, and other parts of
the head, as well as of other more remote parts of the sys-
tem.
There was a constant flow of viscid, ropy discharge from
the mouth, like that of great salivation, mixed with greenish
matter, and accompanied by a fetid, cadaverous odour, ema-
nating from this fluid, and the dead and morbid parts, and so
exceedingly offensive as to be almost insupportable to the
bystander.
The malady was also particularly complicated, as well as
highly aggravated by a great many adhesions of the muscles
of the jaws to each other, which had taken place during the
excessive salivation previously mentioned, in consequence of
which, the unhappy patient had lost almost all power of
moving the under-jaw. From these causes, the teeth were
mechanically pressed into their dead sockets, and by this
unnatural and permanent pressure, the absorption and exfoli-
ation of the sockets were greatly retarded, and the immense
irritation already produced by the dead teeth and sockets
upon the gums and other soft parts, highly augmented ; not to
mention that these adhesions particularly impaired the enun-
ciation of the patient.