Page 19 - An essay on the diseasesof the jaws, and their treatment

KDITOR's preface. XV clearly proves that such operations ought not to be indis- criminately had recourse to, as had previously been the practice. Nevertheless, it appears to me that he overlooks too much the eflPect of the curative plan of treatment directed to the complicated organs of the mouth, and considering the comparatively small number of cases de- manding amputation, that he rather overrates the impor- tance of that operation. The writers on dental surgery have not failed to point out the morbid effects of the diseases of the teeth, on the osseous structure of the jaws; but they have been content to grapple with these effects in one or two forms only. " Abscess of the Antrum," " ParuUs, or Gum- boil," and " Epulis"—the simplest form of the sarco- matous tumour—are sometimes mentioned in Systems of Dental Surgery; but uniformly as distinct primary dis^ eases, instead of symptomatic affections—all equally re- ferrible to the same causes, namely, the idiopathic diseases of the teeth and sockets. As in the natural sciences the tracing of analogies be- tween individuals, and the referring of them to known species, is more beneficial to natural history than the far more easy efforts at dissociation and segragation—so in medical science, the multiplying of specific diseases, without regard to causes, is rather an impediment than an assistance to the advancement of practical medicine. A vesical calculus may give rise to various affections