CLASS 1. 2. 4. 13. OF IRRITATION. 1 1 9 



belladonna are said to have been successful. See Cephal&a 

 idiopathica. 



13. Odontalgia. Tooth-ach. The pain has been erroneously 

 supposed, where there is no inflammation, to be owing to some 

 acrid matter from a carious tooth stimulating the membrane of 

 the alveolar process into violent action and consequent pain; but 

 the effect seems to have been mistaken for the cause, and the 

 decay of the tooth to have been occasioned by the torpor and 

 consequent pain of the diseased membrane. 



First, because the pain precedes the decay of the tooth in re- 

 gard to time, and is liable to recur, frequently for years, without 

 certainly being succeeded at last by a carious tooth, as I have 

 repeatedly observed. 



Secondly, because any stimulant drug, as pyrethrum, or oil of 

 cloves, applied to the tooth, or ether applied externally to the 

 cheek, is so far from increasing the pain, as it would do if the 

 pained membrane already acted too strongly, that it frequently 

 gives immediate relief like a charm. 



And thirdly, because the torpor, or deficient action of the 

 membrane, which includes the diseased tooth, occasions the mo- 

 tions of the membranes most connected with it, as those of the 

 cheek and temples, to act with less than their natural energy; 

 and hence a coldness of the cheek is perceived easily by the hand 

 of the patient, comparing it with the other cheekfand the pain 

 of hemicrania is often produced in the temple of the affected side. 



This coldness of the cheek in common tooth-ach evinces, that 

 the pain is not then caused by inflammation; because in all in- 

 flammations so much heat is produced in the secretions of new 

 vessels and fluids, as to give heat to the parts in the vicinity. 

 And hence, as soon as the gum swells and inflames along with 

 the cheek, heat is produced, and the pain ceases, owing to the 

 increased exertions of the torpid membrane, excited by the ac- 

 tivity of the sensorial power of sensation; which previously ex- 

 isted in its passive state in the painful torpid membrane. See 

 Odontitis, Class II. 1. 4. 7. and IV. 2. 2. 8. 



M. M. If the painful tooth be sound, venesection. Then a 

 cathartic. Afterwards two grains of opium. Camphor and 

 opium, one grain of each held in the mouth; or a drop or two of 

 oil of cloves put on the painful tooth. Ether. If the tooth has 

 a small hole in it, this should be widened within by an instru- 

 ment, and then stopped with leaf-gold, or leaf lead; but the tooth 

 should be extracted if much decayed. It is probable that half a 

 small drop of a strong solution of arsenic, put carefully into the 

 hollow of a decayed aching tooth, would destroy the nerve with- 

 out giving any additional pain; but this experiment requires 



