=Ulcerated Mouth.=--First, with reference to the _sore-mouth_ of children. I have already noticed a form of inflammation and ulceration of the gums sometimes met with during teething, but the sore-mouth of which I am now about to speak is often quite independent of that process; though it may sometimes be found associated with it, and is indeed rarely met with after five years of age. In almost all instances it is preceded and attended with symptoms of indigestion, during the course of which the mouth becomes inflamed, hot and red, and small very painful shallow ulcers with sharp-cut edges, and a little yellowish deposit on their surface, appear at the edge of the tongue, on the inside of the mouth, and especially on the inside of the lower lip, and the adjacent surface of the gum. Successive crops of these little ulcerations not unfrequently appear, so that for many weeks the child may be kept by them in a state of extreme discomfort; swallowing, and even speaking being the occasions of considerable suffering. It is seldom that nursery remedies, and the so-called cooling medicines, though often of some service, suffice to get rid of the ailment, which for the most part needs judicious medical treatment, and local as well as constitutional measures. Now and then this condition comes on in the course of measles, and is then sometimes of serious importance. In the other form, the disease is usually limited to the gums, and affects especially those of the front of the lower jaw, which become swollen, ulcerated at their edges, where a very ill-smelling deposit takes place of a dirty white or greyish colour, the surface beneath being spongy, swollen, raw, and bleeding. The ulceration sometimes extends so as to lay bare a large part of the sockets of the teeth; but though loosened they seldom drop out. Coupled with this, the glands at the angle of the jaw are swollen, and the child dribbles constantly a large quantity of horribly offensive saliva. In the children of the well-to-do classes the condition is seldom seen except in a slight degree; but even when severe it is rarely accompanied by any grave disorder of the general health. It seems to tend, whether treated or left to itself, slowly to get well; but its progress to a natural cure is extremely tedious, and the gums are left by it for a long time spongy, bleeding easily, and only very imperfectly covering the teeth. Anxiety is sometimes excited by this condition; it being supposed that the white deposit on the edge of the gum implies some relation between it and diphtheria. This is not so, for though this peculiar ulceration of the gums has now and then been found associated with diphtheria, the nature of the two diseases is essentially different. It is, however, always wise to call in medical advice in order to settle this important question, and the more so, since there is one remedy, the chlorate of potass, which, in appropriate doses, acts upon the condition almost as a charm.