leave permanent memorials behind them. From your thoughtless minds they may escape; but they remain in the remembrance of God. They form an important part of the register of your life. They will hereafter bear testimony, either for or against you, at that day when, for all your actions, but particularly for the employments of youth, you must give an account to GOD."

TEETH THEIR HEALTHY STATE ESSENTIAL TO THE GENERAL HEALTH.

MR. KOECKER'S INTERESTING CASES.

"Why, Sir," said a gentleman we know, to a person with whom he could, on account of the great interest he had shown in the person's welfare, take the liberty, "if your teeth were clean, you would be worth ten pounds a year more." Unclean teeth are disfigurements to the eye, and they are often the cause of an offensiveness of smell extremely repulsive, and consequently highly injurious to the interests of the individual, who makes a freedom from his presence to be regarded as a deliver

ance.

Mere regard to selfish interest should induce persons to take care of their teeth; but to this other reasons may be added.

Sixteen teeth in each jaw is the natural number. Each tooth is supplied with a nerve, a branchlet from one of two principal nervous branches-the upper jaw nerve (superior maxillary,) and the lower jaw nerve (inferior maxillary). These branches are the continuations of nervous bodies, arising from the brain, and in their origin and in their distribution, are connected with other nerves, having connexion with the eyes, the ears, the face, the head, and the throat, and even, indirectly, with almost every part of the body.

Unclean teeth cause diseased teeth; and a diseased tooth must produce a modification of the state of the nerve supplying the tooth; this must be conveyed to the chief nerve, and this to the brain, and to the other nerves in connexion therewith. Thus, general inconvenience is produced by a local affection.

"Attend to your teeth" is an advice to be well regarded.

Their cleanness is each person's business; but, if their state requires the attention of others, seek out an honest, a talented dentist; not a man who is respectable, because "he has," as the witness once defined respectability, "a gig,"❞—not a man who advertises "cheap teeth;" but a man who can and will explain what he proposes to do, and why he proposes to do it ;not a man who proposes to stop rotten stumps, and thus shut death and decay within the jaw. Such a man is a fool or knave, even though royalty may smile on him.

Some illustrations of these remarks will be found in the following communication by Mr. L. Koecker.

To the Editors of the Journal of Health and Disease. GENTLEMEN,-Permit me to offer you my best thanks for the flattering manner in which you referred to me in your excellent journal of last October. And hoping that you will not consider me too intrusive, I take the liberty to place in your hands the accompanying Cases.

I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,
Your very obedient Servant,

5, Conduit Street, Hanover Square, Nov. 18, 1845.

L. KOECKER.

CASE OF EXTRAORDINARY FUNGOUS DISEASE OF THE GUMS AND SOCKETS OF THE TEETH.

Mr. Atlee of Ealing, about 60 years of age, originally of a very robust constitution, had for nearly 30 years been a great martyr to the gout, for which he had taken various powerful medicines with only temporary benefit; he also frequently suffered from severe pain in the ears, and his hearing had become very defective.

The patient was then under the care of Mr. Dickenson of Ealing, and, on consultation with Mr. Lawrence, the latter gentleman advised my being consulted.

On the 30th August, 1840, when I visited the patient, he had been bedridden for six months, and was reduced to a state of great

emaciation and debility. On examining his mouth it presented a most forbidding appearance; all the teeth, blackened or discolored and much furred with tartar, were imbedded in and Upper Jaw.

surrounded on all sides by an irregular fungous, and partially ulcerated mass of a deep-red, almost livid appearance, extending above half an inch in breadth on both sides of the teeth, and half an inch deep. The whole mouth was in a state of great inflammation, especially the diseased parts, and excessively painful

even to the slightest pressure of the tongue, and his breath was extremely offensive.

The fungous excrescences in many parts extended beyond the chewing surfaces of the teeth, and hence any attempt to close them together caused agonising pain, in consequence of which the sufferer was totally unable to take any solid food.

The patient was still in possession of nearly all his teeth, and with the exception of one or two of them, all were, as far as I could ascertain, sound and firm in their sockets; but experience having taught me that such a state of the mouth generally arises from a diseased condition of the roots of the teeth, or of their sockets, and other osseous structure of the jaws, I gave my opinion, that the removal of the diseased mass alone would be the far more painful operation, and still be productive of only temporary relief; and as the condition of the patient permitted of no delay or doubtful treatment, I proposed, in preference, to commence by emancipating the diseased mouth from the immediate cause of irritation—namely, all the teeth, and afterwards to remove the

excrescences.

Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Dickenson agreed perfectly with my views, and the patient himself earnestly requested that the most speedy remedy should be at once adopted.

I extracted in 10 to 15 minutes 29 teeth, and found many diseased, some affected with caries, some deprived of the cover investing them, and some with exostosis in various stages.

Eleven days afterwards I removed all the fungous mass with strong scissors of different forms. The patient rapidly improved in health.

Nearly two years afterwards I revisited Ealing, and calling at the house of my patient, was introduced to a robust, tall, healthy-looking old gentleman, whom certainly I should not have recognized as my patient. His mouth I found to be in a perfectly healthy state. He could masticate well, and articulate with so little imperfection, that his loss of teeth would not have been noticed. He has long been able to resume his public duties as parish-clerk.

Since the operation he has been free from any attack of the gout, requiring medical attendance; he has not suffered from the

ear-ache, and his hearing is perfectly restored; and so excellent is the state of his health, that he, having reached the age of 62 confidently expressed his conviction that he should "get rid" of the gout.

This case proves the great importance of a PROPER and JUDICIOUS early care and attention to the teeth, when they are still in a healthy state-that is, a proper preventive treatment; for in this case, the patient had never paid any attention to the cleanliness of his teeth and mouth, and this formidable disease was solely the result of a long and uninterrupted carelessness.

It also proves the very great importance of a proper dental treatment; for nothing but such could have saved his life and restored his health. The patient is still living, a period of more than five years after the treatment, and at an age of sixty-five, enjoying much better health than thirty years before. Indeed he is now not only well, but in robust health, notwithstanding the loss of every tooth, without the aid of artificial teeth.

CASE OF DEAFNESS CURED BY PROPER DENTAL TREATMENT.

Mr., of Dublin, a gentleman holding a high government office, was induced, by the recommendation of the late Dr. James Johnson, to consult me respecting his teeth, on the 10th May, 1841.

He was about 48 years of age, and had generally, with the exception of some slight interruptions, enjoyed good health, but his power of hearing had for the last three or four years decreased to that extent that he was now so deaf that I could with difficulty make myself understood by him. He had no hope of ever recovering his hearing.

After examining his mouth and teeth, however, it was my decided opinion, that the deafness had been produced by a very improper and injurious dental treatment adopted during many years by a very celebrated dentist; and I therefore held out to him the greatest hopes of an almost entire restoration of his hearing. His mouth and teeth were in a pitiable condition, not only from dead, carious, and painful roots and teeth, which had been injudiciously left in the mouth, and had become covered with fetid tartar, attended with chronic inflammation and sup