On Diseases and Accidents of Farmers, 225 



Diseased Teeth, — General bad health and various con- 

 stitutional irritations, without constant pain, often proceed 

 from one or more diseased teeth. No person ous^ht to 

 permit a decayed tooth to remain in his mouth, provided 

 it is found to be too far gone to be plugged, an operation 

 which is earnestly recommended as soon as possible 

 after the discovery of a black spot. The progress of the 

 decay of a tooth, after the appearance of the slightest de- 

 fect, is gradual but certain. If it be on the side adjoin- 

 ing another tooth, it should be filed out. For either ope- 

 ration a regular dentist should be employed. The sooner 

 it is done, the less will be the deformity, pain, and expence, 

 and the greater the certainty of insuring a continued use 

 of the tooth, considerations all of importance. The too 

 general neglect of their teeth, by persons resident in the 

 country, often occasions an early decay of theai. Those 

 unacquainted with the laws which regulate the animal 

 economy, and particularly with the powerful effects pro- 

 duced in the system, through the sympathy of the nerves, 

 may find some difficulty in acceding to the opinion, that 

 one or more decayed teeth could produce disease, or af- 

 fect the continuance of one, in a part remote from the 

 tooth. Such nevertheless is the fact. It may probably 

 induce many to attend to the caution given respecting the 

 propriety of removing decayed teeth, to state a few parti- 

 culars on the subject. The incredulous may be prepared 

 to admit the theory, from the well known fact of the 

 alarming convulsions produced in children, by the irrita- 

 tion of the nerves from the pressure of one or more ns» 

 ing teeth from the jaw, against the nerves in the gums. 

 The effects of decayed teeth in adults are not less remark- 

 able. Violent rheumatisms in various parts of the body, 

 epileptic fits, dizziness in the head, long continued and 

 severe pains in the head, intermittent fevers, and partial 

 palsy, and that old complaint indigestion, which so many 



