Volume 3

Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum
Date:
1882-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/568 (page 15)
    Affections of the Gums, Accumulations of Tartar, Sfc. u The Scurvy in the Gums (vulgarly so called) A [The gums sometimes] u swell, become extremely tender, and bleed upon every occasion; which circumstances being somewhat similar to those observable in the true scurvv, the disease has */ ' generally been called a scurvy in the gums.” “ But as this seems to be the principal way in which the gums are affected I suspect that the same symptoms may arise from various causes, as I have often seen the same appearances in children evidently of a scrofulous habit, and have also suspected the same cause in grown people: they likewise frequently appear in persons who are in all other respects perfectly healthy.”— Hunter : On the Teeth ; Works, vol. ii. p. 82. 2173. Part of a lower jaw, with the margins of the gum spongy and detached from the teeth, and a gum-boil in front of the fang of the right central incisor tooth. Hunterian. “ There are parts of the tooth which lie out of the way of friction, viz., the angles made by two teeth, and the small inden¬ tation between the tooth and gum. “ Into these places the juices are pressed, and there stagnate, giving them at first the appearance of being stained or dirty.” . . “All our juices contain a considerable quantity of calcareous earth, which is dissolved in them, and which is separated from them upon exposure, which continues mixed with the mucus; so that the extraneous matter consists of earth and the common secreted mucus.” .... “ The earth is attached to and crystallized upon the tooth, and the mucus is entangled in these crystals.”—Hunter : On the Teeth ; Works, vol. ii. pp. 85, 86, 87. 2174. Two molar teeth, with thick deposits of tartar on one side of the base and on a small part of the surface of their crowns. 2175. A mass of earthy substance, which formed on the stump of a tooth in the upper jaw of a woman seventy years old. It looks like a mass of tartar, and is upwards of an inch in length, and nearly an inch in breadth. Hunterian. Mr. Hunter probably alludes to this specimen when he says :— “ I once saw a case of this kind where the accumulation, which was on a grinder, appeared like a tumour on the inside of the mouth, and made a rising in the cheek, which was supposed, by every one that felt it, to be a scirrhous tumour forming on the cheek ; but it broke off, and discovered what it was.”—Hunter: On the Teeth; Works, vol. ii. p. 86.