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TREATMENT OF CARIES. 67

would especially be the case when there is an irri-
table condition of the throat and bronchia ; and the
esophagus and stomach are not exempt. In what

degree such an implication of the respiratory and the
digestive apparatus is referable to diseased teeth, it
may not be easy to determine ; but it is impossible
that a number of such teeth, involving in their disease
all the ramifications of the facial nerves and the
whole mucous membrane of the mouth, could remain
there with impunity. And besides this direct influ-

ence on the lungs and stomach, diseased teeth are
constantly emitting offensive odors, which are taken
in by inhalation, and offensive matter, which is swal-
lowed with the food.

TREATMENT OF CARIES.

In the rational treatment of caries, the first con-
siderations are the nature and peculiarities of the
obvious predisposing causes ; whether these are con-
stitutional or local ) and if constitutional, whether
they are such as can be modified by therapeutic
treatment of the general system. If the latter, such

treatment should be adopted as will bring about the
most perfect state of health, so as to obviate as far as
possible all conditions favorable to decay, by securing
a healthy condition of the mouth in all its parts—as