128 DEPOSITION OF TAKTAll UPON TEETH. 



both jaws were more or less covered with tartar, 

 which at the- moment I simply smoothed from all 

 irritating angles. I saw the patient four days 

 afterwards, when the ulceration was completely 

 healed, and as she was free from all pain, I did 

 nothing further, but sent her to the Dental Hos- 

 pital, that the gentlemen there might see the case 

 as it was; and I found subsequently that they had, 

 very properly, gradually cleared the teeth of the 

 tartar that had been left. The girl's mother 

 declared that, until the first portion came away, 

 she had never complained of any suffering; the 

 tartar had accumulated so gradually and so 

 smoothly, as to its surface, that the parts were 

 not offended; but immediately the first piece gave 

 way, two sharp angles were left, and rapidly 

 brought on the ulceration. There is in the Col- 

 lege of Dentists even a larger mass aggregated 

 upon an artificial piece in the lower jaw; and I 

 remember, during the first ten years of my prac- 

 tice, I received a visit every six months from a 

 lady who wore six artificial teeth, made of the 

 hippopotamus's tooth, and tied to the adjoining 

 bicuspids by silkworm gut: these had been put 

 in five years before I saw the lady, and they con- 

 tinued quite sound and hard ten years afterwards, 

 when she died. This piece collected on its inside 

 next the tongue, within every six months, more 

 than double its mass of tartar, and only required 

 removal and retying, on account of the substance 



