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SWELLING OF THE FANG. 185
These diseases of the Teeth, arising from inflammation,
become often the cause of diseases in the alveolar processes, and
gums ; whicli I shall proceed to describe, (p)

(j)) [The term Spina ventosa was first used by the Arabian writers to
designate a disease in which matter formed in the interior of a hone,
and then made its way to the surface. The following are Mr. Bell's
remarks upon this section of Hunter's work :
" The affection here described is nothing more than a deposit of bony
matter around the fang, produced, doubtless, by inflammation of the
periosteum. The new bone is rather yellower and less opaque than the
original structure. Hunter has alluded here to the occurrence of
nervous pains, produced by these cases. It appears probable that the
pressure of the new bone upon the nerves of the periosteum of the
alveolus, or of the alveolar process itself, is the cause of this pain, for
it cannot be distinguished from local neuralgia produced by any other
similar cause. Cases of this description are detailed by Fox and
by myself, in which the only means by which the true seat of pain
could be ascertained was by striking the affected tooth, by which
pain was produced, and the extraction of the tooth at once exhibited
the cause of the pain and effected its cure." (1)
Such are the class of cases to which Hunter no doubt referred ; but
the writer has in his possession one specimen, presented to him by his
friend I\lr. W. Perkins, which far more closely corresponds to the
meaning of the term Spina ventosa.
The tooth is a second lower molar belonging to the right side of
the jaw ; only a portion of the outer wall of the crown is left, the
remainder having been destroyed by caries, leaving the continuation of
the pulp cavity into the fangs exposed and open. The tooth was
removed from the mouth of an elderly lady, having presented the usual
symptoms which accompany chronic periostitis, with occasional
paroxysms of a more acute character.
Upon examining the fangs they are seen to be somewhat enlarged,
and the surface nodulated from ossific deposit. So far there is nothing
to distinguish the tooth from any other that has been the subject of
chronicperiostitisjbut on the anterior surface of the first fang near the apex
is a small opening about the one-tenth of an inch in length, and the
one-sixteenth in width, with the edges very jagged, and leading into a
cavity excavated in the fang ol the tooth. This cavity communicates
by a narrow opening with the pulp cavity, as shown by fluid passing

(1) Hunter's Works by Palmer, vol. 2, p. 71.