THE MOUTH, AND ITS TEEATMENT. 27^ 



blow. The present race of dentists, by free and 

 friendly intercourse, are daily becoming them- 

 selves better informed on matters a little outside 

 the run of daily practice, and, what is far more 

 important, we are all lending a willing hand to 

 secure for those who shall follow us a more com- 

 plete education. I may illustrate the preceding 

 remark by what has again and again come under 

 my notice. Attacks of acute inflammation of the 

 peridental membrane, give rise to much suffering, 

 especially at night ; robbed of sleep and exhausted 

 by pain, the sufferer goes to the dentist to have 

 his tooth extracted, supposing that to be the only 

 cure for toothache. If the tooth should be carious, 

 the request of the patient is at once complied with ; 

 but should the tooth be quite free of caries, as it 

 sometimes is, the patient is often advised to apply 

 a leech to the gum and take ** some aperient " 

 medicine. I put it to those present, whether they 

 have not often been disappointed at the result; 

 whether they have not often been told that, though 

 while the leech was on there was some abatement 

 of pain, afterwards it became as unbearable as ever, 

 — ay, and even worse, for the leech, by sucking, 

 has caused the blood to flow in increased quanti- 

 ties in the direction of the inflamed membrane, 

 and thus the inflammation has been aggravated 

 rather than lessened. After the failure of this 

 treatment, the tooth has been extracted, as the 

 supposed only alternative. The theory which 



