. THE MOUTH, AND ITS TREATMENT. 297 



be the result of great personal jieglect, and a 

 wretched chamber in which the family lived. 

 .Girls appear to be more obnoxious to this affection 

 than boys, and the lower jaw than the upper. 



The power of the chlorate of potash in this 

 affection appears not to be confined to the human 

 subject ; some five years ago the serpents in the 

 Zoological Gardens were the victims to a ruinous 

 extent of a disease which manifested itself locally 

 in the mouth, by ulceration of the mucous mem- 

 brane and exfoliations of portions of the alveolus 

 with their teeth. At the time I was a frequent 

 visitor at the serpent-house, investigating a sub- 

 ject, and my attention was drawn by the keeper to 

 the state of their mouths. I sponged the mouth 

 out with a lotion composed of the chlorate, and 

 injected five grains twice a day into the stomach. 

 Synchronously with this treatment the serpents 

 subject to it improved in health. 



The modus operandi of this salt is disputed, but 

 it is generally believed to owe its power to the 

 great readiness with which it parts with its 

 oxygen. 



Ulcerative stomatitis, while it destroys the 

 tissues of the mouth remorselessly, never, so far 

 as I know, terminates fatally, but the phagedenic 

 stomatitis not uncommonly does so, especially if 

 neglected in its earliest stages. The general 

 symptoms of phagedenic ulceration, at its com- 

 mencement, are oedema of the affected cheek, of a 



