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312 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES
the great value of the work; it treats, however, much more of general
surgery of the mouth and neighboring regions than of dental art properly
so called. The first volume of 626 pages is almost entirely dedicated to
the diseases of the maxillary sinus, which, for this author, were ever the
object of favorite and particular study. He is not in favor of carrying out
irrigation of the antrum through the mouth, even when an alveolar open-
ing has resulted spontaneously through the extraction ot a decayed tooth;
he prefers instead, whenever this is possible, the reopening of the nasal
orifice, by means of sounds and cannulae adapted for the purpose, that is,
varying in thickness and in length, and curved according to the necessities
of the case. The natural opening of the antrum being reestablished,
one irrigates the cavity through it by means of a cannula to which a small
syringe has been screwed. When the teeth are sound, notwithstanding
the diseased condition of the antrum, Jourdain is absolutely contrary to
the performing of the Cowper-Drake operation. When, on the contrary,
the malady owes its origin to decayed teeth, Jourdain extracts them, but,
as already said, carries out the detersive and medicated injections through
the natural opening.
The author divides the collections of the maxillary sinus into purulent and
lymphatic. The purulent are painful and corrode the bone, the lymphatic
are not painful and do not corrode the bone, but distend and soften it,
producing external tumefaction which yields to pressure, and, on this being
diminished, gave out a characteristic sound. These so-called lymphatic
gatherings referred to by jourdain are none other than mucous cysts
of the maxillary sinus. Also the other diseases of Highmore's antrum
(polypi, etc.) are taken by this author into attentive and minute considera-
tion.
The second part of the work is dedicated to the other diseases of the
maxillary bones (especially of the inferior one), as well as to those of the
lips, cheeks, salivary ducts, gums, frenum linguae, etc. Dental hemor-
rhage and difficult dentition are also spoken of in this volume.
The author relates, with regard to the latter subject, that he had
observed, in corpses of infants who had succumbed to a difficult denti-
tion, that the crowns of the erupting teeth were covered by the alveolar
margins folded upon them. This, according to him, must be the reason why
even lancing of the gums proves useless in some cases of difficult dentition;
it is therefore necessary, whenever it is possible to recognize the existence
of this state of things, to destroy the bony margins that oppose the erupting
of the teeth; the author declares that he has frequently done this, with
fortunate results.
In 1784 Jourdain published a treatise on artificial dentures.^ He

' RtHcxions et eclaircissemcnts sur la construction ct les usages des ratelicrs complets et
artificiels.