On the complete development of the teeth : the system whereby dentition may be easily accomplished, and its importance mentally and physically, with the consequences entailed upon their offspring by the incomplete development of the teeth of parents : addressed to the medical profession / by George Henry Cullis.

  • Cullis, George Henry.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the complete development of the teeth : the system whereby dentition may be easily accomplished, and its importance mentally and physically, with the consequences entailed upon their offspring by the incomplete development of the teeth of parents : addressed to the medical profession / by George Henry Cullis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    finding the child sinking, I was allowed to operate. I lanced the gums of the child, removed a dead tooth, and allowed the escape of matter from the gums. On the following day the child was perfectly recovered. Never were the words of the learned Boerhaave more aptly exemplified—“ A. proper incision of the gums, a removal of ulcerous matter, are, when properly applied, anti-epileptics.” Since that time, early in the present year, the wife of a tailor, living in Ormond Place, called at my house upon some business, bringing with her a child ; who, by the weakness of its cry and restlessness, appeared to be suffering severely. I requested to be allowed to examine the child s mouth; but the mother objected, as she had just been to her medical attendant, (naming him) and he had prescribed for the child, and advised that the gums should not be lanced; and informed her that “ the greatest men in London now, never lance the gums of children.” This growing objection to the application of the lancet to the gums of children, I deeply deplore, as I am perfectly convinced that by its timely use, thousands of lives might be saved. IJpon this point, ample corroboration will be found in the works of Mr. Tomes, Dr. Ashburner, and Mr. Bell. Mr. Tomes, in his Lectures “on Dental Physiology and Surgery,” after stating from his own experience the very great benefits that almost immediately occur, from the free use of the lancet, quotes from Dr. Ashburner s work on dentition, in which a number of cases are given, where lancing the gums produced instant relief to senous and distressing spasmodic diseases. “ I attended a fine boy, says Dr. Ashburner, “ from the cutting of his first incisor tooth to the completion of his detention of twenty teeth. lie was the last of a family in which all the children had afforded examples of abnormal dentition. With the appearance of the four first molars, the 6pasms were more severe. The gum lancet freely used always cured these spasms, &c. Mr. Bell, in speaking of the diseases conse- quent upon the irritation produced by abnormal first dentition, and in reference to the frequent occurrence of diseases of the jrain from this cause, also says, “ The brain too, is frequently affected, the pupils of the eyes are permanently expanded, opasm of the voluntary muscles frequently succeeds, and comulsions at length recur at intervals with increasing violence; which, unless immediate relief be obtained, too