On the medical history and treatment of diseases of the teeth and the adjacent structures : being lectures delivered before the members of the College of Dentists of England in the session 1858-9. / by Benjamin Ward Richardson.

  • Richardson, Benjamin Ward, 1828-1896.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the medical history and treatment of diseases of the teeth and the adjacent structures : being lectures delivered before the members of the College of Dentists of England in the session 1858-9. / by Benjamin Ward Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    MALARIA, EFFECTS OF. a very definite cause, a particular kind of dental disorder, though I would not agree with Mr Hutchinson, that a patient born syphilitic may escape from damage of the teeth altogether, if m infancy he escape stomatitis. In cases of acquired syphilis, indeed, we often see not only a destruction of the teeth from exfoliation, but a residual effect on these organs creeping on assiduously, and manifesting itself at last m a manner as unexpected as it is serious. We have yet to notice briefly the third class of poisons which, through the system, implicate the teeth. I spoke of these poisons as malarious poisons. That these poisons — or it were perhaps nearer the truth to say this poison, the evidence being m favour of a unit poison-acts only through the system IS clear from the fact, that it produces general systemic symp- toms of an intermittent kind, of which the tooth symptom is often but one, though it may be for the time the only symptom. How this poison finds its way into the system is a point of great obscurity. There is strong evidence that it fioats in the air, and is inhaled by the lungs. There is strong evidence that it is sometimes carried by impure water, and is absorbed by the sto- mach. In its intensity of action it is confined to particular dis- tricts of the country—to marshy districts of country, of all others —where it lights up endemic disease. But in lesser intensity the poison lurks everywhere, setting up neuralgic affections, and tooth neuralgia perhaps most of all. Often when least suspected, this poison is doing its silent work, and teeth are not unfrequently sacrificed to its fuiy wliich in structure are as sound as unbroken enamel or dentine can make them. I remember some years ago being peculiarly impressed with this fact. In a village in which my professional labors were once exercised there was a small plot of ground covered with houses and little gardens. During one season I was constantly having under treatment some of the inhabitants of this locality for the toothache. I am afraid that, under pressure of solicitation and in ignorance of the cause that was at work, I drew more sound teeth than diseased ones for the people of this place. In the ordinary course of professional practice, the origin of the malady did not