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haps, will rarely be the best mode to adopt in curing the
gums. Peculiar circumstances may form other cases of
exceptions to this rule : the exception proves the rule. Some-
times these teeth become very dirty, and considerably cov-
ered with tartar and other foreign and injurious matter ; in
this case, parents often ask the advice of the dentist, and, in
many instances, their extraction is recommended, even if
the teeth themselves are sound and firm. In these cases, I
recommend to have the teeth carefully cleaned by the den-
tist, and direct a brush and some suitable tooth-powder to be
used, so as to insure cleanliness of the child's teeth. The
following case I will mention to illustrate the position.
A lady, in April 1827, sent her little daughter, aged three
years and six months, to me, that I might extract her upper
incisor teeth, which, the lady supposed, from their being very
dark coloured and almost encrusted with tartar, were decay-
ed. Upon examining them I found they were sound, and firm
in their sockets. Instead of extracting them, I removed the
tartar, and rendered her teeth very white and clean, and gave
her nurse a soft brush and a box of tooth-powder, composed
of myrrh, peruvian bark, &c, with directions to keep the
child's teeth perfectly clean with the use of the brush and
tooth-powder, and sent her home with her teeth in perfect
order, much to the satisfaction of the mother. The child's
gums, which were considerably inflamed, soon became very
healthy, and she will, no doubt, have the use of her teeth
two or three years.

Injurious consequences arising from the Premature Extrac-
tion of the Deciduous Teeth.

In the first place, the pain which attends the extraction of
the infant teeth, when they are sound and firm in their sock-