106 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



the disease. But as in some cases this extraction is not proper, 

 and as in many cases it is obstinately avoided, other means of 

 curing the disease, or at least of relieving the pain, have been 

 sought for and much practised. 



CCCCLXXXVI. Among these remedies, those are likely 

 to be the most effectual which entirely destroy the affected 

 nerve, or at least so much of it as is exposed to the action of the 

 acrid matter in the tooth. When an opening is made into the 

 cavity of the tooth, the nerve of it may be destroyed most cer- 

 tainly by the actual cautery ; and it may also possibly be done 

 by the application of potential caustics, either of the alkaline 

 or acid kind. 



CCCCLXXXVII. When these remedies cannot be ren- 

 dered effectual, relief may often be obtained by diminishing the 

 sensibility of the nerve affected, by the application of opium, or 

 of the more acrid aromatic oils, directly to the nerve in the 

 tooth. It appears also, that the sensibility of the affected nerve 

 may often be for some time diminished by the external applica- 

 tion of opium to the extremities of those nerves in the skin, 

 which are branches of the same fifth pair of nerves with those 

 of the teeth. 



CCCCLXXXVIII. When the disease consists entirely 

 in a pain of the nerve of the tooth, without any considerable 

 affection communicated to the neighbouring parts, the remedies 

 already mentioned are those especially to be employed ; but 

 when the disease consists very much in an inflammatory affec- 

 tion of the muscles and membranes of the jaw, and when at the 

 same time there is little or no access for the above-mentioned 

 remedies to the affected nerve, other measures are to be em- 

 ployed for relieving the disease. 



CCCCLXXXIX. If the disease be attended with any gen- 

 eral phlogistic diathesis of the system, or with any considerable 

 degree of pyrexia, a general bleeding may be useful in relieving 

 the disease ; but these circumstances occur very rarely, and the 

 disease is for the most part a purely topical affection ; in which, 

 as I observed before, a general bleeding is of very little service. 

 As this disease, however, is a topical inflammation, it might be 

 supposed that topical bleedings would be very useful, and some- 

 times they are so ; but it is seldom that their effects are either 



