Page 23 - An essay on the diseasesof the jaws, and their treatment

AN ESSAY ON THE DISEiSES OF THE JAWS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The maladies of the maxillary bones are occasionally of a very appalling nature, and may be considered as constituting some of the most distressing diseases to which the human frame is liable. They are frequently regarded as incurable ; and, consequently, too often neglected at their commencement, or improperly treated in their advanced stages ; and are thus suffered to proceed in their destructive progress towards a painful and fatal termination. It is probable, that these unfortunate results are in many in- stances attributable to erroneous views of the nature of the diseased structures; as an instance of this, it may be stated, that Mr. John Hunter, that illustrious pathologist, when treating of the disease of the maxillary antrum, in his " Natural History of the Teeth," part i. page 44, being probably misled by his well known theory of the inorganisation of the teeth, inclines to the opinion that these diseases originate from an obliteration of the duct leading to the nose, whereas, accurate observation shows that the closure of the opening in question is the consequence, and not the cause, of the inflammation of the antrum.* That Mr. • Meckel found the maxillary sinuses in an old woman entirely shut towards the nose, without any morbid alteration of the lining membrane being present, notwith- Btanding that their surfaces were moistened as usual. B