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INVASION FOLLOWING MECHANICAL INJURIES. 279

probing finger finds the jaw laid bare sublimate dressing,
;
syringing with permanganate of potassium everj two hours.
" Two more incisions into the cheek and in the regrion of the
ear were necessary. The fever gradually diminished, but up to
the present time some of the wounds are not yet closed, for
almost the entire cellular tissue in the region of the right side of
the neck and lower jaw became necrotic, and was gradually
thrown ofi:'. Fortunately, the periosteum formed again on the
lower jaw, and the case ended comparatively well. But the
patient had sufi'ered terribly. Her life was in danger; she had
gone through an illness of five weeks' duration, and her face was
disfigured by scars. All this was the result of a really criminal
omission of all cleanliness and antisepsis, of unskillful operation,
and total ignorance of surgical principles,"
The Z ihndrztliches Wochenblatt of September 8, 1888, cites the
following case : "About six weeks ago, one Sunday afternoon, a
peasant girl, eighteen years of age, called on a dentist to have a
tooth extracted ; not finding him at home, she sought the aid of
a barber. The latter succeeded in extracting the tooth, but was
not able, in spite of long-continued eftbrts, to stop the ensuing
hemorrhage, and dismissed the girl with the wound still bleed-
ing. At home the hemorrhage continued, and considerable
swelling set in, in consequence of which a physician was sent for,
who, however, came when it was too late, as the examination
revealed blood-poisoning. A few hours later the girl was a
corpse."
A case of septico-pytemia resulting from the extraction of a
tooth is related by Stanislaus Zawadzki.^''^ A locksmith, until
then in good health, forty-six years of age, whose left lower wis-
dom-tooth had been extracted fourteen days previously by a
barber, sufifered on the following day from an exceedingly pain-
ful swelling of the corresponding part of the jaw, accompanied
by chills and sweats; later he was attacked by deafness of the
left ear, and continually increasing headaches. The chills
returned again and again, and finally the man lost conscious-
ness and was taken to the above-mentioned hospital, where high
stupor, grasping the head, groaning, slight icterus, contracted
pupils, high fever (39.9°), small, rapid pulse (ninety per minute),