Oral sepsis as a cause of "septic gastritis," "toxic neuritis" and other septic conditions : with illustrated cases / by William Hunter.

  • Hunter, William.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Oral sepsis as a cause of "septic gastritis," "toxic neuritis" and other septic conditions : with illustrated cases / by William Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Case 2.—Shortly afterwards I saw an old gentleman, a man of strong build and fine physique. He came complaining of sickness and nausea, with disturbance of digestion, and a foul taste in his mouth. He could not eat butcher's meat as it tasted so bad. These symptoms had lasted twelve months when I saw him. On examination in the usual way, I found that his tongue was red and raw, looking like a yjiece of raw meat; both upper and lower gums were angry, and red and inflamed. He had two plates, one in the upper jaw, from which all the teeth had been extracted, and one in the lower jaw. The latter was removed with diffi- culty ; it had not been taken out for a month or more, and had become fixed. There was an extraordinary amount of decomposing septic material around the plates and beneath them. The lower jaw contained three black teeth, one of them loose, in addition to four old rotten stumps, one of which was loose. The diagnosis I made was subacute septic gastritis. The treatment was to boil his plates, to go at once to his dentist to show him the condition of his mouth before any treatment was commenced, so that the dentist might recognise that the trouble had been caused by these rotten teeth. The patient was then put upon milk diet. A week later he returned and said his dentist had seen nothing to remove. Yet even now one rotten stump was so loose that it could have been removed with one finger. He had been twice sick since I saw him, and had brought up a lot of black offensive matter. Since bringing that up he was better, and took his food better than for many months. Yesterday he took a cutlet, which he enjoyed. The mouth was now clean, but was still a little red. The tongue had lost all its original beefy look. The gums were better, but sore, and there was still some stomatitis. I ordered him to scrub his mouth night and morning with disinfecting powder, and to paint the gums with an astringent wash, and to try another dentist. Case 3.—Shortly after this, I had the case of a lady who was brought to me by her doctor for the following symptoms :—For fifteen to twenty years she had suffered periodically from the most intense salivation at intervals of five or six weeks. It made her so ill that she was obliged to take to her bed. The attack usually passed off after what the doctor called a diarrhoea attack. On examination, I found that she had the most extreme stomatitis all over her mouth; an acute, inflammatory condition, with pustules radiating up from carious roots and fangs. She had two plates, one above and one below, both of which she said were ill-fitting, so as to cause her discomfort. She had had those plates for fifteen to twenty years, unchanged, and during that time she had only cleaned them with her tooth brush. The condition of sepsis in connection Avith that may be easily imagined. Qase 4.—General condition: chronic indigestion, gastric pain, gastric catarrh. Oral condition : marked dental cario-necrosis, gingivitis, stom- atitis, and pyorrhoea alveolaris. A gentleman sent to me (April, 1900) sufferino- from chronic indigestion, extending over many years. Pain, 2 3 hours after food, with peculiar sinking feeling, only relieved by eating. Mouth: Teeth very bad, black and decayed, some of them loose ; gums very red and inflamed ; from one tooth pus welling out on pressure upon