Review of Dental Literature and Art. [Volume: 2, Issue: 1, August, 1860, pp. 33-40]

REVIEW OF DENTAL LITERATURE AND ART.

35

found in the liver or other internal viscera as a secondary deposit, the
milder form of cancer so readily improved by chloride of zinc being also
merely confined to the neighboring tissues-a purely local disease, so to
call it. Mr. Erichsen, in referring to this case, made the gratifying statement that we have often mentioned as made also at Guy's, St. Bartholomew's, St. George's, etc., that he has known an interval of eight, ten, and
twelve years to occur after removing a cancer of the lip, the patient bearing nothing more than the slight seam left by the operation. This disease
in the scrotum, under the name of 'chimney-sweep's cancer,' we need
scarcely say is due to the irritation of soot, which seems to act as an irritant, like the rotten and jagged tooth against the tongue in the case of
this poor soldier. In the second case above referred to, Mr. Erichsen
thought it advisable to remove a diseased gland under the jaw deeply
placed in relation to the external carotid, passing also under the facial
artery: this was effected, and it is hoped the case will now do well."
"FIBRO-GELATINOUS TUMOR OF THE UPPER JAW; DISEASE OFTEN MET
BY DENTISTS.-MR. FERGUSSON, in removing a fibro-gelatinous growth
from the alveolar ridge on the right side of the face of a young woman,
one of his last days of operating at King's College Hospital, made his
customary but useful remarks on the best mode of getting at the deeper
parts of the face, antrum, alveolus, etc. Taking advantage of the natural
groove in the middle line of the upper lip, Mr. Fergusson makes his first
incision here; and then, by carrying the dissection back to one or both
sides, as the case may require, or into the nose-(all easily and correctly
done under chloroform)-he finds it a very simple process indeed to get
at any part of the alveolar ridge, or parts adjacent to the antrum, and
generally, as for instance in the present case, without any deformity or
ugly scar on the cheek remaining behind. We are almost afraid to say
what amount of cutting and ugly cicatrixes we have, from time to time,
witnessed in patients' faces from the fearless and rough surgery of former
days, still observed as a legend in more than one of our leading hospitals.
But chloroform and silver wire sutures, and the steady modern thoughtfulness of men like Mr. Fergusson, who blend stormily, now and again,
with a good deal of the 'fortiter in re,' some occasional sunshine and delicacy of the ' suaviter in modo,' —men like Mr. Fergusson, who observe
all the most minute and accurate details of their cases, for their patients'
benefit, have worked a revolution in the surgery of the ' olden time.'
" The growth in the present instance, as already said, affected the upper
jaw-bone, extending in a manner calculated very terribly to frighten many
of our span-new odontological graduates, who will be shortly operating
in such dentist cases; all along the jaw-bone, from the second incisor
tooth to the second molar tooth, a tumor of a doubtful fibro-gelatinous
nature, something like the probably cancerous or fibro-gelatinous polypus
previously referred to. The alveolar ridge appeared, indeed, destroyedbut this was not all, as the tumor had got, too, into the antrum; but
whether it first arose in the antrum or in the alveolus, was difficult to decide. Mr. Fergusson, after a careful dissection, as just described, from
the mesial line back through the upper lip, ala nasi, and cheek, had resort to his peculiar clipping forceps, first clipping away the alveolar ridge,
and then attacking the portion of disease in the antrum and vicinity, and
thus somewhat freely laid open the antrum and nostril, ultimately reducing the entire disease."