270 INFLAMMATION JN THE TISSUES OF 



secondarily affected, may, and often do, come 

 under our treatment. It is, therefore, clear that if 

 I keep myself to that part of the subject I am 

 announced to speak of this evening, " Inflam- 

 mation, as it appears in the tissues of the mouth, 

 and its treatment," which concerns us as den- 

 tists, I must pass by in silence many forms of 

 inflammation which are met with in the mouth. 

 For instance, I cannot speak of that idiopathic 

 inflammation of the tongue which often runs its 

 wild course, rapidly carrying its victim to a most 

 miserable death ; nor can I speak of those attacks 

 of idiopathic inflammation of the submucous 

 tissue which are also rapid in their course, and 

 often fatal in their termination ; nor, again, of 

 those attacks of acute inflammation of the glands 

 so often met with; yet each of these parts are 

 obnoxious to attacks of inflammation induced by 

 diseased teeth, and in this manner they may come 

 under our care. We have all of us, probably, had 

 cases of inflammation of the tongue, brought on 

 by the ragged edge of a tooth. I have known a 

 few such cases, in which the swelling of the tongue 

 rapidly became so great as to cause serious alarm 

 to the patient of suffocation. 



But the inflammatory affections which- most 

 concern us as dentists are those of the dental pulp ; 

 of the membrane lining the alveolar socket and 

 the root of the tooth ; of the cellular tissue of the 

 gum ; and of the mucous membrane. Of these I 



