The gums, with late discoveries on their structure, growth, connections, diseases, and sympathies / by George Waite.

  • Waite, George Derby, 1804-1880.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gums, with late discoveries on their structure, growth, connections, diseases, and sympathies / by George Waite. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    THE DIFFERENT PERIODS OF LIFE. In the primary stages of formation the construction of our bodies is separate ; but, when the earliest periods of our existence have passed, these separate portions becoming intimately blended together constitute one harmonious whole. The brain destined to be the primum mobile of our frame, as well as the seat of our understanding, is the first portion of the sys- tem to be constructed. It is contained within a series of vascular and important membranes, between the two most external of which the bones of the head are secreted. The next part is the face, which appears with two small black spots for the eyes ; we then graduall)r see the other parts of the body forming, and, when development of the various parts takes place, they increase in bulk. When the necessary period of birth arrives, man receives his new existence ; the lungs, which were in a state of collapse, now become filled with atmospheric air, and occupy the entire cavity of the chest; the function of respiration then takes place, the thymous gland in the anterior and superior part of the chest now begins to disappear, the jaws lengthen in order to accommodate the formation of teeth, which is destined to commence within them. The development of the gums, and the offices they perform, are as we go on in life of the greatest possible import to the health. They have attached to them the highest attributes of superior intent and dispensation. If the known phenomena of the heavens, with the various changes of constellations, open to learned eyes a vista into futurity,—or if facts connected with geology call the contem- plation to the highest and most unattainable objects,—to the same ends will the design perceptible in the growth and successive changes of the gums lead the scientific mind. However insignificant these organs may appear, compared to the vast grandeur and magnificence of the considerations with which the mind is overwhelmed when considering the mechanism of the heavens and the wonders of the universe, still the gums can claim