Page 276 - My FlipBook

274

About eighteen months previously to his eoming to town,
he discovered a small excrescence in his nose, followed by a
considerable discharge of fetid greenish matter. His sur-
gical attendant removed the tumour with the forceps, assist-
ed by the application of lunar caustic, but without effecting
a permanent cure. The disease continued after a variety ol*
surgical treatment, and its repeated extirpation was uniformly
followed by returns of the excrescence. The general health of
the patient becoming evidently affected, he was urgently ad-
vised by his physician and surgeon to visit London, in order
to avail himself of the professional talents of Mr. Lawrence.
On an examination of the case, this gentleman instantly de-
tected the actual disease as well as the particular exciting
cause. Viewing it as a case of osteo-sarcoma of the nose,
and suspecting the state of the teeth to be the cause of the
disease, he directed the patient to take my opinion with res-
pect to the condition of his mouth.
By a careful inspection I found the whole of the gums
and sockets more or less suffering from that disease, of which
I have more particularly treated in the 2nd part of my
Dental Surgery, chapter III, p. 270, under the title " Of the
Devastation or Absorption of the Gums, and Sockets of the
Teeth." These parts were in a state of great inflammation
and suppuration, his teeth were much encrusted with green
tartar, and many of them so far deprived of their gums and
sockets as to have become very loose, and their preservation
was not only impossible, but their retention appeared to be a
powerful exciting cause of the disease of the mouth, not-
withstanding they were entirely free from caries. The upper
and under cuspid teeth were much out of their natural line ;
and from the permanent irregular action of one jaw upon
the other, the lateral incisor, cuspidatus, and first bicuspis of
the left side of the upper jaw had been deprived of their vi-