Copy 1, Volume 1

The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good].

  • Good, John Mason, 1764-1827
Date:
1834
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    90/784 (page 36)
    36 ' Gen. I. Spxc. I. a O. Denti- tionis Lac- tentium. Milk teeth- ing. Symptoms of irrita- tion. Second stage; or cutting the teeth. Milk-teeth formed pre- maturely. Rue CLs} VSP ECRELIAC AS [orD. 1 If the irritation become very considerable, the gums swell, the | child grows still more fretful, and starts in its sleep ; or, on awaking suddenly, there is heat, thirst, and other concomitants of pyrexy, with perhaps dulness or drowsiness ; the bowels are affected, which is a common symptom, and a rash appears on the skin, usually the red-gum, and if the irritation extend to the muscles of the chest, there is a dry and troublesome cough. It is the opinion of Dr. Withers, as given in his treatise on asthma, that a cough during dentition never takes place-but from primary affection of the respiratory organs: yet I have often seen this effect produced as evidently from mere sympathy, as increased flow of saliva, or looseness of the bowels. In about ten days or a fortnight, these symptoms subside; and though the infant may occasionally be teased with slight paroxysms of uneasiness, it generally passes on without much inconvenience till the arrival of the second stage, or period of cutting the teeth, which we may expect to take place between the seventh and the close of the ninth month, though sometimes this does not oceur till a few months later. This is the usual progress ; but here, as in many other organs of the system, we sometimes meet with a singular precocity of action, and, at other times, with as extraordinary a hebetude: and hence, while it is no uncommon thing for an infant to be born with several of its milk-teeth already cut; a fact, which has in various instances occurred to my own observation, and is:specially noticed by Helwig* and other writers; sometimes these ‘teeth are extremely tardy in their appearance, and, in one instance, are said not to have been protruded before the child was ten years old.+ [M. Dugés saw an example in which no teeth were cut till the age of eleven;{ and Smellie refers to instances of much greater retardation, where per- sons were twenty-one or twenty-two years old when their teeth first appeared. ‘The appearance of teeth at birth is sometimes alleged to be particularly frequent in infants born after the usual period § ; but, such premature dentition is neither a proof of protracted preg- nancy, nor yet of, what is also stated, a strong constitution in the infant, which is often unusually small, and does not thrive. We have, indeed, high authority || for the observation, that perfectly ossified teeth are sometimes cut in the foetus of only six months.] _ It is the opinion of Mr. Fox, that the premature teeth, which are usually the central incisors of the under jaw, are nothing more — than the upper parts or crowns of teeth without the apparatus of fangs ; that they have consequently a weak attachment to the gums, soon get loose, and produce a considerable inflammation in the arise from so free a use of these sweet stimulating ingredients must be objection- able. See Dentirion, in the Cyclop. of Pract, Med: p. 518. — Ep. * Obs. 28. Richard III., Louis X1V., and Mirabeau, seem to have been born with some of their teeth already cut; but the circumstance is common enough in all ranks of society. — Ep. t+ Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. 1. Ann. 1v. Obs. 28. In all probability these were really the permanent teeth and not the milk ones, as mentioned in the text. In — such cases, Andral concludes, that the failure of the first dentition must be owing” either to the non-existence of the germs, or else to the pulp, though developed as usual, not secreting’the hard portion. Anat. Pathol. t. ii. p. 260.—Eb. } Dict. de Méd. et Chir. Pratique, t. vi. p. 221. § Manuel d’Anat., tom. ii. p. 359.