Explosion of Teeth With Audible Report. [Volume: 2, Issue: 6, January, 1861, pp. 318-319]

318

THE DENTAL COSMOS.

details would not be profitable in an article of this character. However,
to such as may desire to pursue the investigation, I would most earnestly
recommend the perusal, ay, study of "Billing's Principles of Medicine,"
a work replete with useful knowledge, both to the dentist and the practitioner of medicine.
MIDDLEBITRG, VA., Dec. 15, 1860.
EXPLOSION OF TEETH WITH AUDIBLE REPORT.
BY W. H. ATKINSON.
CASE 1.-Rev. D. A., Springfield, Mercer County, Pa., August 31st
and September 1st, 1817. At nine o'clock A.M. of August thirty-first,
the right superior canine or first bicuspid commenced aching, increasing
in intensity to such a degree as to set him wild. During his agonies he
ran about here and there, in the vain endeavor to obtain some respite; at
one time boring his head on the ground like an enraged animal, at another
poking it under the corner of the fence, and again going to the spring
and plunging his head to the bottom in the cold water; which so alarmed
his family that they led him to the cabin and did all in their power to
compose him. But all proved unavailing, till, at nine o'clock the next
morning, as he was walking the floor in wild delirium, all at once a sharp
crack, like a pistol shot, bursting his tooth to fragments, gave him instant
relief. At this moment he turned to his wife, and said, " My pain is all
gone." He went to bed, and slept soundly all that day and most of the
succeeding night; after which he was rational and well. He is living at
this present time, and has vivid recollection of the distressing incident.
CASE 2.-Mrs. Letitia D., Vernon, Mercer County, Pa., 1830. This
case cannot be so clearly or fully traced as case first, but was much like it,
terminating by bursting with report, giving immediate relief. The tooth
subsequently crumbled to pieces; it was a superior molar.
CASE 3.-Mrs. Anna P. A., Hemphill, Mercer County, Pa., 1855.
This had a simple antero-posterior split, caused by the intense pain and
pressure of the inflamed pulp. A sudden, sharp report, and instant relief,
as in the other cases, occurred in the left superior canine. She is living
and healthy, the mother of a family of fine girls.
By contrast of extremes we are at times illuminated with unwonted
clearness of perception, and were we in earnest to know the truth for the
sake of the power to do good that it would confer, more than the gratification of what is called "an idle curiosity," we might the more certainly
interpret the law of organic relation.
To my mind, the mineral, the plant, and the animal, properly interrogated, teach us the unadulterated truth.
These bursting teeth, under the immense pressure of accumulated force,