Page 17 - An essay on the diseasesof the jaws, and their treatment

editor's preface. xiii Harris's " Dissertation on the Diseases of the Maxillary Sinus j"—but the very fact of the affections of the jaws being regarded by those authors from so narrow a point of view, implies a misconception of their true pathology. Unfortunately, this limited view of the diseases of the osseous structure of the jaws, is the one which has gene- rally been taken by our most eminent medical authorities, who still continue to look upon the affections of the antrum as peculiar to that cavity. Nor is this the case among systematic medical and surgical writers only, but even such accurate and close observers as Dr. Walshe have fallen into the error of entirely overlooking the lower jaw, and its liability to similar affections with the upper. The Table, however, which I have given in the note to page 14, sets this matter at rest. Nothing could be more satisfactory than the results which it exhibits— agreeing, as they do, most perfectly with what might have been expected from a consideration of the individual peculiarities of the maxillary bones. We see by that Table, that of the two jaws, the upper is the more liable to suppuration—on account, probably, of its greater vascularity, the under to necrosis—owing, doubtless, to its being more isolated and less abundantly supplied with vessels; and that both jaws are almost equally prone to tumours and growths, which, when of a malignant nature, are quite as frequent in the one as in the other—a circumstance which arises from the cha-