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REVIEW OF DENTISTRY. 357

pain and of the sight of blood. This latter fear is something
that I. cannot, as yet, understand, for they do not seem to have
the same fear of blood from any other part of the body.
" I had a case in point only a few days ago. While I was ex-
tracting a tooth for a strong healthy woman, she fainted entirely
away. Upon recovery she said the fainting was due, not to the
pain, which was little, but to the sight of blood. I might relate
another case, to show that there is occasionally severe and danger-
ous hemorrhage from the gums among the Siamese. I had
extracted a lower molar for a lady of rank during the morning.
The hemorrhage was entirely arrested before she left my office,
but on getting home the blood began to ooze out of the wound
again; late in the afternoon a telephone message came, stating
that in spite of the remedies given, the bleeding continued. I
immediately prepared a strong styptic solution and sent it over,
but was surprised when a messenger came for me in the evening,
saying that the wound was still bleeding, and the lady quite faint.
Without delay I went myself and applied the solid stick of nitrate
of silver, with immediate stoppage of hemorrhage, much to the
satisfaction of her husband, who had almost despaired of her
life. Such accidents to the ignorant Siamese terrifies them, and
to a certain extent accounts for their extreme fear and timidity.
It has sometimes happened that while extracting a back tooth
my forceps have struck a very loose front tooth, knocking it out,
much to the surprise and delight of the patient. He had just
assured me that this front tooth was still very firm and that he
could not bear the pain now, but would come some time in the
future and have it taken out. This intolerable fear of pain has
made the introduction of nitrous oxide gas in the extraction of
teeth most profitable. This gas is an entirely new thing in Siam,
unknown until I set up the apparatus and manufactured it from
the imported chemicals. During the past year I have admin-
istered gas sixteen times with greatest success. The Siamese
consider it a most beneficial novelty, so much so that I was asked
by a man who had just come out from its influence, if I could not
bottle some of it up for him, so that he could use it at night for
sleeplessness.
" The Siamese, as a nation, are very free from diseased teeth so
common among other countries. This fact is accounted for as
being one of the effects of the universal custom of chewing betel.
This custom dates back to the earliest days of the Siamese and