Periscope of Medical and General Science in their Relations to Dentistry. [Volume: 2, Issue: 11, June, 1861, pp. 625-637]

634

THE DENTAL COSMOS.

Cooke had no doubt that the knife was the most desirable. He had seen
some very bad results from the use of the 6craseur. Local and constitutional treatment was of the utmost value in the malignant as in the nonmalignant affections of the tongue. In the latter class a cure was always
to be effected, while in the former much relief from suffering was to be
obtained; and in some instances the disease had been arrested in its progress. Lotions of chlorate of potash, sulphate of copper, borax, etc.
were commended, together with the internal administration of the mineral
acids, bark, iron, and cod-liver oil."-(Ibid.)
"Delay in Acquiring the Use of Language, supposed to be due to
Tongue-tie, but probably to Imperfect Mental Development. By DR.
FRANK H. HAMILTON.-A little girl, four years old, was brought to the
clinic by her mother, who said she did not speak as distinctly as other children of her age, and she thought that she was tongue-tied. The child looked
intelligent, had nursed well when an infant, and had always been well.
On examination it was found she could project her tongue beyond her
teeth and lips half an inch, which fact Dr. Hamilton regarded as sufficient
evidence that the condition of the frenum linguae did not interfere with
her articulation. Raising her tongue, the frenum was seen to be normal
in its dimensions. Dr. Hamilton took this occasion to make the following remarks: There are two periods of life at which children will be
brought to you to have the frenum linguae cut. Soon after birth, when it
is found that the child does not nurse well, or at all; and from the third
to the seventh or tenth year, when a delay occurs in the acquisition of language. In the first of these examples, the parents or friends seldom fail
to attribute, as a cause of the refusal or inability to nurse, a shortness of
the frenum. But you must remember that a child may be unable or refuse
to nurse because it is feeble, or has a sore mouth, or has been kept too
long from the breast, and hence lost the instinctive faculty or desire; it
may be owing to the mother's milk being distasteful, or to its not flowing
readily, or the nipple may be too small or contracted. Indeed, it is my
opinion that some one of these causes will explain most of these cases. I am
certain that I have never been able to trace it to a malformation of the
frenum. I have cut the frenum occasionally to gratify the parents, but I
am not aware that it ever did any good. Some gentlemen are of the
opinion that, if the tongue cannot be lifted freely from the floor of the
mouth, or projected beyond the lips, the child cannot nurse. I think this
is an error. The tongue can grasp the nipple without being either protruded or lifted from the floor of the mouth; by mere contraction of its
muscles it can be sufficiently thickened, and made to swell upward toward
the roof. I am skeptical, therefore, in relation to the benefit supposed
to be derived from cutting the fillet for this purpose. I do not speak of
adhesions of the tongue to the floor of the mouth, but only of malformations of the fillet. In the second class of cases, also, I am equally skeptical in relation to the effect of this frenum in preventing distinct articulation, or even in producing lisping or stammering at a later period of
life; but I wish especially to speak of its supposed influence in examples
of delay in the acquisition of language, or of indistinct and imperfect
articulation.
"The causes of this delay are, according to my observation, deafness,
partial or complete, in consequence of which instruction in sounds cannot
be communicated to the child; or idiocy, partial or complete. Perhaps