THE USE OF STIMULANTS OF THE PA LA TE. 403 



if not otherwise unsafe, including the Tamarind of the pharma- 

 copoeia, grapes, and oranges. Failing or instead of these, ice, sips 

 of water, and some of the demulcents already enumerated may be 

 given. When the deficiency of saliva, the dryness of the mouth, 

 and the lack of relish are less urgent but more persistent, as in 

 chronic dyspepsia, we adopt more pleasing means of stimulation. 

 We have recourse to aromatic, bitter, spirituous, and pungent 

 articles. We order food specially flavoured or made otherwise 

 agreeable to the palate by artistic cookery. When the appetite 

 flags after severe illness or in exhaustion from other causes, we 

 recommend the patient to stimulate his palate with a little 

 wholesome wine, which is at once acid, aromatic, and 

 spirituous. We rouse the nerves of taste and the secreting 

 glands by simple or aromatic bitters in acid or alcoholic com- 

 binations before or during meals, or pungent and acid con- 

 diments, such as mustard, pepper, and pickles. 



3. When it is desired to rouse the gustatory and secreting 

 functions of the mouth independently of digestion, e.g. in cases 

 of paralysis of the mouth, and in the chronic thirst of Bright' s 

 disease and diabetes, such substances as Pyrethrum, Tobacco, and 

 small doses of Pilocarpin are indicated. The dryness of the 

 mouth and throat caused by Atropia and Hyoscyamia may require 

 the suspension of the drug, or Jaborandi may be prescribed 

 with it unless contra-indicated. On the other hand, salivation 

 produced by drugs must be arrested by removal of the cause, 

 such as Mercury, or the exhibition of Belladonna. 



4. The treatment of unpleasant excretions from the mouth 

 is rationally carried out by removing their cause, especially dis- 

 order of the stomach and bowels ; deodorising the breath ; or 

 imparting to it an artificial odour. 



5. Defects in the mechanical apparatus of the mouth, espe- 

 cially the teeth, have, as a rule, advanced beyond the limits of 

 functional treatment. Even then treatment is not only possible, 

 but dental surgery is one of the most rational and successful 

 branches of local therapeutics. Short of this, much can be done 

 by ordering food in a soft or fluid form, and directing that time 

 and care be spent by the patient over the process of masticating, 

 tasting, and insalivating every morsel. 



Lastly, a discussion of the action of drugs upon the mouth 

 introduces us naturally to the therapeutics of the next stage of 

 the digestive process in the stomach. The substances which 

 stimulate the nerves of taste are constantly employed, as we 

 shall see, to produce reflex activity of the gastric functions ; 

 and the thorough insalivation with the alkaline juices of the 

 mouth, for which they also provide, may be used as a powerful 

 means of increasing the acid secretion- 



