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Teething. 33
teething, in order that those remedies, which physicians have
found" to be most successful in affording relief, may be resorted
to in time to avert the fatal consequences that too often follow.
This is the more necessary as many parents are much prejudi-
ced against the most efficacious treatment that has been em-
ployed, and have some vague and erroneous notions on the
subject : we therefore, shall give the opinions of two very
eminent medical men, on this interesting subject,—the great
John Hunter, and that very talented and learned physician,
John Mason Good.
The following is a condensed extract from Dr. Good's Study
of Medicine, Vol. I. Diseases affecting the alimentary canal,
" It will readily be supposed that the most violent symp-
toms of dentition, are those produced by the growth and pro-
trusion of the milk teeth ; for the system is then in its tenderest
state of infancy, and prone to disorder from very slight causes
of irritation.
" The immediate cause of irritation in the present instance,
is the pressure of the teeth in the gums; and the degree of
irritation depends upon the peculiar teraparament of the child.
As the teeth push forward, the superincumbent gum wastes
away in consequence of absorption, and is at last cut through,
and the tooth makes its appearance. This pressure is not,
however, uniformly exerted through the whole course of teeth-
ing, but is divided into distinct periods or stages, by which the
vital instinctive principle, which is what we mean by nature,
becomes exhausted by a certain extent of action, and then re-
quires rest and a state of intermission. The first active stage
of teething is usually about the third or fourth month of infancy;
and constitutes what is called breeding the teeth, or the pro-
duction of their bone from their pulpy rudiments, buried in the
gum, and formed during foetal life. The first and most usual
symptoms of this change is the looseness with which the infant
grasps the nipple, and the frequency with which it lets go its
-hold, accompanied with fretfulness and crying, and succeeded
by a copious discharge of saliva, the salivary glands partaking