where the interior of the tooth is decayed, but where there is externally either no hole at all, or too small a one to get at the nerve for the purpose of killing it. As the total extraction of a tooth is sure to break the nerve, which is not always accomplished when it is but partially drawn, the former is the only way to make quite sure that it will never ache again. When a hollow tooth has an externally accessible aperture, the sensibility of the nerve may be destroyed by the introduction of the end of a piece of heated wire several times into the hollow of the tooth, by which the nerve is burned and the progress of the caries is checked. When this operation is cleverly performed, it is attended with less danger and difficulty than the use of many subtle remedies, which are applied to the hollow of the tooth with a view to deaden the nerve, and which have frequently pernicious consequences. Such are, particularly, aqua-fortis and oil of vitriol. It is much safer to have recourse to milder means which merely allay the pain of the nerve; for instance, to put into the hollow a little cotton impregnated with a drop of essence of cloves or cinnamon, or some other essential oil, by which the aching is frequently stopped for a considerable time. Of this sort of remedies, which are said to prove sometimes wonderfully efficacious, I might introduce a long catalogue; but I shall content myself with a brief notice of those that are most extolled. In such cases camphor has been employed in various ways. Montagnana directed a small quantity to be boiled in vinegar, and this vinegar to be held in the mouth. He declares that this application will remove all kinds of tooth-ache, which is false. Martin Ruland relieved a lady of quality of a tooth-ache which would not yield to any other application, by introducing oil of camphor upon cotton into the hollow of the tooth. Fonseca used the same oil in like manner. Thoner was dining with a party, when one of them was seized with such violent tooth-ache, that he would have retired: he put a small piece of camphor into the hollow of the tooth, which immediately ceased aching, so that the patient could stay with the company and enjoy himself. Hartmann dissolved half a scruple of camphor in a drachm of oil of cloves, put a drop upon cotton into the hollow of a tooth, and thus stopped its aching, Opium also renders good service in such cases. Either a drop of tincture of opium alone, or mixed with an equal part of essence of cloves, is applied on cotton. This method is recommended by Tissot. A small pellet of opium, or laudanum, upon cotton, may likewise be put into the tooth; and this sometimes relieves the pain instantaneously. Many writers extol oil of box as an infallible specific in tooth-ache. Fonseca directed a few drops to be dropped into a hollow tooth, and it always stopped the aching immediately. Riverius and others are equally warm in their commendations of this remedy. I have tried it myself with three patients; two were relieved, but with the third it failed to be sure, the tooth-ache of the latter, though the tooth was hollow, was partly occasioned by inflammation. Forestus praises a remedy which was communicated to him by a rustic, namely, dock-roots cut into slices and laid upon the aching tooth, which removed the most obstinate pains; but the prima vie were always previously cleansed. The roots of the yellow iris are also said to be wonderfully efficacious in stopping the tooth-ache immediately, either if they be chewed, or their juice be rubbed on the ailing tooth. M. Tissot, by boiling wild tansy in water, made a lotion which, when held in the mouth, frequently allays the aching of hollow teeth, and which may be constantly used by persons who are liable to tooth-ache, as it can do no harm, is of benefit to the gums, and is not so disgusting as the practice recommended by some French physicians, to wash the mouth every morning with warm urine, from which such patients are said to be sure of deriving benefit who have many hollow teeth at once, that are liable to ache on the slightest occasion. When tooth-ache is prolonged by worms which fix themselves in the cavity, tobacco of every kind may be used with advantage, as the smoke, even with those who are unaccustomed to it, deadens the sensibility and gives ease, if the pain be not attended with inflammation and fever. Ettmüller directed a decoction of savine to be held in the mouth for the purpose of expelling worms; and Crato prescribed decoction of nettle-root, which also relieves the pain. When the nerve has been destroyed or deprived of sensibility by any of the above means, and the hollow of the tooth is cleaned out, it may be filled with lead, which prevents the air and food from affecting it and the neighbouring parts so easily, and exciting it to ache afresh. To this end a bit of wax is introduced into the hollow of the tooth, and this, when taken out, serves as a model for forming a piece of lead, which is then inserted and pressed in firmly by the opposite tooth. Some years ago considerable expectations were entertained of the efficacy of the magnet in tooth-ache, from some experiments made by a learned physician of Gottingen. When applied to the aching tooth it was said to afford speedy relief. I have frequently tried it, and it cannot be denied that the magnet has some effect on the complaint. After a sensation of coldness in the tooth, the pain subsides in a short time, but it generally returns in as short a space in another. Sometimes, indeed, the magnet fails of affording even this temporary relief, and then recourse must be had to other means of more certain operation. The means to which I allude are those that remove pain, which is nothing but a very lively sensation, by exciting either another violent pain, or a number of slighter ones, the sum total of which is sufficient to overpower the first. Accidental circumstances, too, sometimes effect such cures as a physician, with all his study and experience, would fail to accomplish. A violent blow on the shin has frequently been known to stop instantaneously the most raging tooth-ache. Sudden fright often drives it away, or the fear which those experience who set out for a dentist's for the purpose of having a tooth drawn, but on reaching his door find themselves at once relieved from their pain. A sound box on the ear has been known to dispel tooth-ache, owing to the joint effect produced on body and mind. Let us now endeavour to purify this mode of cure of its grossness. By placing medicines that produce pain on sensitive parts of the skin, and enduring them as long as possible, you may frequently disVOL. V. No. 29.-1823. 54 pel the most vehement tooth-ache, which may not return for a considerable time. Garlic is a suitable matter for producing this effect, but those who cannot bear the smell of it may use scraped horse radish in its stead. It is to be applied to the interior of the elbow joint on the side affected, and I have often witnessed effects from it which have surpassed the most sanguine expectations. If applied to the contrary side, it is said that the pain shifts to that side, and is not to be removed from it again by this treatment. The pain caused by these applications is severe; but whoever has suffered, for any time, the torments of tooth-ache, which are frequently excruciating, would find it the easier of the two to bear. Any sort of damp salt applied to the temples produces, by its excitement, a similar effect. A slice of turnip toasted, and placed behind the ear, is recommended for the same purpose. Such as prefer a less simple remedy, may make a paste with fermented dough, vinegar, and mustard, and apply it to the soles of the feet, to the hips, or to the bend of the knees or elbows. Tissot assures us that he cured violent tooth-ache in the lower jaw with a plaster made of flour, white of egg, aqua vitæ, and mastix, and applied either to the temple or behind the ear. On the temple it is particularly serviceable in head-ache. All these remedies, in fact, operate in the same way; for whatever excites lively sensations in another part overpowers and dispels tooth-ache, and hence this effect is frequently produced by cathartics of such a nature as to occasion violent pains in the intestines. As, after any violent pain, there is a determination of the juices to the seat of it, and as even garlic, horse-radish, salt, and mustard plasters, affect the skin and raise blisters which give out a watery fluid, this effect has led most physicians to consider it as the principle of the cure of the pain, and to give to all these remedies the general epithet of drawing. If this notion be correct, the remedies of this kind are suitable only for those sorts of tooth-ache arising from colds, since they draw from the nerves of the teeth the acrid catarrhal humour which causes them to ache. But it would appear that on this point practitioners are often mistaken, because the operation of the remedies that cause pain is frequently so rapid, and the quantity of the humours drawn off by them so inconsiderable, that it is doubtful whether they do not operate rather in a psychological way, if I may so express it, by obtunding the feelings, than physically by drawing. Indeed, it is evident, from the operation of the affections of the mind, that such cures are practicable without drawing; and in catarrhal tooth-aches, drawing remedies, which act without so much pain as those mentioned above, but draw off more water-for instance, blister-plaster, cathartics, and cupping-are comparatively much slower in their operation, in all kinds of tooth-ache, than those which give pain, when they succeed. Respecting the latter, I must observe generally that it is better to apply them to the limbs or to the nape of the neck, than to the temples or behind the ears. It is true that on the last-mentioned places their operation is sometimes more speedy; but I have remarked that on the temples large sores, which are very unsightly, are occasionally produced by such applications; and that the frequent use of drawing remedies behind and in the ears causes a ringing in them, and even hardness of hearing, which cannot be too carefully guarded against. I shall add one more general observation, which is, that the aching of hollow teeth is at the same time, in many cases, catarrhal or inflammatory, or is liable to become so in the course of the complaint. Those remedies which otherwise allay the pain immediately when applied to the tooth, then fail of producing their usual effect, and even opium only makes it worse. Having recently observed this in a person who had frequently employed opium with the best success, and perceiving at the same time some inflammation, I directed her to lose blood, which immediately produced the desired effect. As the consideration of the treatment of tooth-ache occasioned by hollow teeth has occupied much more space than I expected, I must reserve for another paper my observations on the other sorts of that disorder. LONDON LYRICS. Stage Wedlock. FARREN, Thalia's dear delight, Of grief, unstain'd by fiction, This Derby prize by Hymen won, Sent forth a second Earl to woo, Awhile no actress sought his shrine; Each heart held "cabinn'd, cribb'd in " Her dark blue eye, and tresses loose, "Hail, feather'd Conjuror!" I cried, I pledge thee, bird, in Circe's cup!"— Thrice vanquish'd thus, on Thespian soil, Fair Bolton changed to Thurlow. These wounds some substitute might heal; Renounce her tragic station? I felt half bent to wing my way Stunn'd, like a skaiter by a fall, 'Tis thus that, prowling round Love's fold, Would these bold suiters wield the fork, Or urchins at a barrow, First come, first take, one would not care: Gain we no safeguard from the laws? No! Eldon, all depends on thee: Doctor Gall. I SING of the organs and fibres Or stay and be wise for your pains. The passions, or active or passive, As busy as bees in a glass hive Are seen in their separate cells. Old Momus, who wanted a casement Whence all in the heart might be read, Were he living, would stare with amazement To find what he wants in the head. There's an organ for strains amoroso, |