SYPHILIS ON THE TEETH. 101 



described. I have made very extensive obser- 

 vations upon this point, and will venture a very 

 confident opinion in the negative. It must, how- 

 ever, be remembered, that, under the denomina- 

 *tion " strumous," a vast number of patients who 

 are really syphilitic are constantly classed. In 

 those cases in which there is no reason to suspect 

 liereditary syphilis, strumous patients often have 

 most excellent teeth. Here is a cast from a 

 patient who came to me at the Ophthalmic 

 Hospital, which will do for illustration. He was 

 florid, presenting tumid alee nasi, and a thick 

 upper lip ; he had enlarged glands in the neck, 

 and ulcers on the cornece. He presented, indeed, 

 a very ideal of tumid florid struma, where there 

 was not the slightest resemblance to the physio- 

 gnomy of hereditary syphilis. The cast shows 

 his teeth large, and of perfectly good arid regular 

 formation, contrasting most strongly with the 

 others now before you. Setting aside two or three 

 cases in which I could not ask questions, I may aver 

 I have never yet met with an instance in which 

 the teeth were strongly characterized, in which 

 subsequent inquiry did not completely confirm 

 the suspicion of hereditary syphilis. I there- 

 fore believe that these observations are of exceed- 

 ingly great value in the diagnosis of this disease. 

 They are especially so after the age of puberty, 

 when it is possible the patients may have con- 

 tracted the disease themselves. Of course, no 



