The gum-lancet will here do no good whatever; its employment
would be intensely painful, and that unhealthy ulceration which
attends the inflammation of the gums would attack the edgos of
the eut, and thus aggravate, instead of relieving, the child’s suffer
ings. Local depletion by leeches, however, is extremely useful in
such cases. Some writers have suggested that the leeches should
he applied to the gum itself; but I have always contented myself
with the much easier plan of applying them to the angle of the
jaw, and have seldom been disappointed in obtaining very marked
relief of all the symptoms. The diet must be most carefully rega~
lated, the state of the bowels attended to, and a mildly antiphlo-
gistic plan of treatment adopted, while the borax lotion may be
used locally with advantage. There is, however, one remedy which
acts in the various forms of stomatitis almost like a charm, and
which proves exceedingly useful even when inflammation of the
mouth is associated with the process of teething. This remedy, for
the introduction of which into practice in cases of stomatitis the
profession is indebted to Dr. Hunt," is the chlorate of potash, which
may be given dissolved in water and sweetened, in the dose of two
grains every four hours to a child a year old, with almost a cer-
tainty of effecting a cure in the course of four or five days.
Two or three exceptions, however, to the ordinary course of even
severe odontitis have come under my notice, in which the affection

* Medico-Chirungical Transactions, vol. xvi. p. 142.
