psychiatrical medicine they are especially to be inquired for. It is not
safe to disregard them, as they may influence materially the character
of mental derangement, and may be brought in as efficient agents in the
treatment.--_N.Y. Medical Journal_.

* * * * *




PYORRHEA ALVEOLARIS.

[Footnote: Abstract from a paper lately read before the Southern Dental
Association, Baltimore, Md.]

By Dr. J. M. RIGGS, of Hartford, Conn.


A gentleman, a physician, aged thirty-two years, strong and vigorous,
with no lack of nerve-energy, calls to have his teeth attended to, with
the disease in the first stage throughout the mouth. Upon examination,
he observes upon the gum of one of the lower cuspids a dark purplish
ring encircling the neck, from one-sixty-fourth to one sixteenth of an
inch in depth; the tooth _in situ_ is white and clean. With the aid of
the mouth and hand mirror he shows the condition to the patient, and,
taking up an excavator, endeavors to pass it down between the tooth
and gum, on the labial surface. After it gets down a little way the
instrument meets with an obstruction, over which, calling the patient's
attention to the fact, he carefully guides the instrument until it drops
down on the tooth-substance beyond it; then, turning the instrument and