Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The works of John Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![It is sometimes brought on, or increased, by affections of the mind, of which I once saw a remarkable instance in a young lady. It often has its periods, and these are frequently very regular. The regularity of its periods gives an idea of its being a proper case for the bark, which however frequently fails. I have seen cases of some years’ standing, where the hemlock has succeeded when the bark has had no effect; but sometimes all attempts prove unsuccessful. Sea-bathing has been in some cases of singular service.n CHAPTER V. OF THE EXTRANEOUS MATTER UPON THE TEETH. There are parts of the tooth which lie out of the way of friction, viz. the angles made by two teeth, and the small indentation 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. A tooth in this stage is generally clean for some way from its cutting edge towards a [The disease here treated of is evidently that which has since the time of Hunter been so often treated of under the terms Neuralgia and Tic douloureux. It is unne- cessary here to say much on the subject of this disease when arising from constitutional causes, in which case, I believe, the periodical character will almost always distinguish it; but it may not be useless to offer a few observations on those cases of local neural- gia which are more or less connected with the teeth, and which more or less nearly simulate tic douloureux, especially when occurring in a constitution predisposed to that affection. It appears that the pressure of any extraneous body on the fibre of a nerve will produce the peculiar pain in question. Hence it not unfrequently happens that the deposit of bony matter on the extremity of the root of a tooth, the existence of a dead tooth, and any other similar cause will produce it. I have seen a case in which every constitutional remedy, usually employed in tic douloureux, had been em- ployed without effect for an affection of this kind, which had become excessively vio- lent in its attacks; and on learning that it had existed ever since the extraction of a tooth, the part was carefully examined, and a small spicula of the alveolar process was discovered under the edge of the gum, on touching which the paroxysm of pain was instantly excited. The removal of this spicula was at once successful. This case is here mentioned to show how trifling a cause may produce the most severe pains of this description, and to point out the necessity for a careful and even minute examination of the part in which the pain appears to commence.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21996635_0002_0105.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
