The gums, with late discoveries on their structure, growth, connections, diseases, and sympathies / by George Waite.

  • Waite, George Derby, 1804-1880
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gums, with late discoveries on their structure, growth, connections, diseases, and sympathies / by George Waite. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    cause why we may perform an operation on the tootli of one person, when the same operation in another person's tooth is far too sensitive to endure. See the constitution in which nervous sensibility may have been roused writhing with agony, when even a delicate hand- kerchief may have had contact ion with a tooth. Let the physiolo- gist watch the muscles of expression when any harsh substance may have rubbed the enamel of a tooth belonging to such a constitution. Let him go further, and even name to a person of extreme sensibility the circumstance of a substance of a harsh nature touching the enamel, and he will perceive on the face an involuntary shiver. On the other hand, we meet with persons living in the open air, and of hardy habits, whose teeth are outwardly unpossessed of sensibility. Oh fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint Agricolas, quibus ipsa, procul discordibus armis, Fundit humo facilem victum juslissima tellus ! All this will lead us to the vast import of the doctrines of neurology, and at the same time deeply into the laws of sensibility, if we wish for a thorough knowledge of the mouth. In doctrines which have lately been propagated, many curious cases are on record of paralysis of certain nerves being caused by a pressure on others. There is a celebrated case known in London of pressure of the maxillary nerves causing paralysis of the leg. I saw a case in Paris which was more comprehensible ; this was paralysis of the arm. I am indebted to my talented friend, Mr. Hunt, of Lower Brook Street, for two cases where there also existed paralysis by pressure on the maxillary nerves. After these observations, I hope to be excused for describing the course of the great sympathetic nerve. The ophthalmic ganglion is placed within the orbit occupying the external side of the optic nerve, and communicating by means of its posterior and inferior angle with the common oculo muscular nerve by means of a small twig, which is in general thick and short. By its posterior and superior angle it communicates with the Surculus Nasalis e Ramo Ophthalmico Willisii, through the means of a long and slender filament. I have never observed the ganglion ophthalmicum communicate with the cavernus plexus, nor the communication which Arnold states as existing between the ganglion meckeli and the one here described. The ciliary nerves take their origin from the ganglion ophthalmicum to the number of fourteen or fifteen ; these nerves are extremely flexuous, and are disposed into two distinct parcels around the optic nerve, until they reach the posterior portion of the eye ; then traversing the tunica sclerotica, distribute themselves over the ciliary ligament and the iris. During their passage along the optic nerve they often unite, and not unfrequently form one, two, and even three small ganglions.
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