Operative surgery, based on normal and pathological anatomy / by J.F. Malgaigne ; tr. from the French, by Frederick Brittan.

  • Malgaigne, J.-F. (Joseph-François), 1806-1865.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Operative surgery, based on normal and pathological anatomy / by J.F. Malgaigne ; tr. from the French, by Frederick Brittan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    orifice of the roots, and turn the instrument so as to completely crush the nerve. If the sound is too large, use a needle of iron, steel, or any other metal, sufficiently fine to enter as far as is necessary ; if the cavity will not admit these, a strong pig's bristle, with which the nerve should be pushed and pressed until it gives no further pain ; this bruising is very painful, and rarely efficacious: cauterization is preferred. IV. OF CAUTERIZATION. First Proceeding.—Heat in the candle a finely-pointed metallic sound, or simply the end of a knitting-needle, filed to the size of the carious hole, and mounted in a porte-crayon. In order to succeed in the operation, the patient must be courageous, and the carious hole so situated that the instrument may be quickly introduced. Second Proceeding.—An Italian dentist has proposed to direct against the pulp a jet of ignited hydrogen gas, by means of a bladder and the canula of Anel's syringe. Third Proceeding.—The cavity of the carious tooth is filled with a small bit of cotton, steeped in alcohol, or, to act more energetically, nitric or muriatic acid, either pure or diluted ; this application should be repeated several times. It has also been advised to pass into the cavity a small fragment of caustic potash, or a mixture of equal parts of nitrate of silver and acetate of lead ; the cavity should be covered with a pellet of cotton until the effect is produced. Others introduce directly a drop of liquid acid on the end of a needle or the nib of a pen. But we cannot be sufficiently sure as to the quantity of caustic employed, nor of the manner of introducing it; whence the following proceeding:— Fourth Proceeding (Turck, of Nancy).^—The instrument M. Turck uses is a tube of very thin glass, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, globulated at one extremity, and drawn out to a capillary tube at the other, curved to the required degree ; by holding the tube and globe in the hand, the contained air becomes sufficiently rarefied to expel a small quantity. If the capillary extremity be then plunged in the acid, a quantity more or less considerable enters the tube as it cools. Nothing is easier than to graduate this quantity. The in- strument thus charged is carried to the required spot, and, by again heating it, the liquid is driven out. Appreciation.—Cauterization is a painful operation, liable to bring on inflammation of the alveolar periosteum ; we should not, then, em- ploy it on teeth too sensible to cold and heat. This sensibility is sought to be checked by the application of different tinctures (Ga- riot). But another more important objection is, that it seldom suc- ceeds, as the pulp grows again from day to day as it is cauterized (Laforgue). If we resort to cauterization, it is evident that the actual cautery is the best for the teeth of the upper jaw ; for the others, the plan of M. Turck seems to us the most sure and ingenious.