The general directions to be given to the patient, though apparently trivial, are most important and should never be forgotten. He or she should be advised to go home very quietly, to avoid all forms of excitement, to assume the sitting position usual during the day, and to use a high pillow at night. The patient should be fed through a bent tube, and all fluids should be given cold. In addition to plugging the socket, hæmostatics should be administered internally. In _cases where there is_ a thin watery blood and _no tendency to coagulation_ it may be fairly assumed that the cause of the hæmorrhage lies in the blood, and such drugs as gallic acid[11] and perchloride of iron[12] are indicated, _but when the blood shows a marked tendency to coagulate_ in the mouth, as often happens, and the bleeding still continues, such drugs as ergot[13] are indicated; in this latter condition it may be assumed that the cause of the hæmorrhage lies in some want of contractility of the vessel wall, and ergot causes contraction of unstriped muscular tissue. At the time of plugging the socket a dose of gallic acid, perchloride of iron or ergot should be given, and its administration continued at intervals until the bleeding ceases. Mr. Morton Smale prefers a hypodermic injection of ergotine.[14] The patient should be seen within twenty-four hours after treatment, and if the bleeding has ceased the plugs may be removed and an antiseptic mouth wash prescribed. This course is not recommended when the hæmorrhage has been severe; under such circumstances the plugs should be allowed to work themselves out. If the hæmorrhage has not then ceased, the socket should be replugged tighter than before with a plug of wood wrapped in non-absorbent cotton-wool. Should this prove of no avail the actual cautery may be tried; if this fails, and the bleeding is from the mandible, the canal should be trephined and a plug of ivory inserted, so as to compress the artery against the inner plate of the bone. In uncontrollable hæmorrhage from the maxilla digital pressure on the common carotid opposite the transverse process of the sixth cervical vertebra may be tried; should this fail to stop the hæmorrhage, ligature of that vessel must be resorted to. In one case of hæmorrhage from the region of the third right lower molar Mr. Boyd[15] divided the lip in the median line and reflected the cheek from the jaw. The mandibular canal was then laid open by excising the outer plate of the bone, and the bleeding was arrested by plugging the mesial and distal ends of the canal. _In extreme cases, with sign of collapse_, normal saline solution[16] must be infused into the median basilic vein.