The teeth are a fruitful source of suffering and of disease, and are with truth styled “our first and our last plagues.” Dentition is the most important period of a child’s life, and is the exciting cause of many infantile diseases; during this period, therefore, he requires constant and careful watching. When we consider how the teeth elongate and enlarge in his gums, pressing on the nerves and on the surrounding parts, and thus how frequently they produce pain, irritation, and inflammation; when we further contemplate what sympathy there is in the nervous system, and how susceptible the young are to pain, no surprise can be felt at the immense disturbance and the consequent suffering and danger frequently experienced by children while cutting their _first_ set of teeth. The complaints or the diseases induced by dentition are numberless, affecting almost every organ of the body,—the _brain_, occasioning convulsions, water on the brain, etc.; the _lungs_, producing congestion, inflammation, cough, etc.; the _stomach_, exciting sickness, flatulence, acidity, etc.; the _bowels_, inducing griping, at one time costiveness, and at another time purging; the _skin_, causing “breakings-out.” To prevent these diseases, means ought to be used to invigorate a child’s constitution by plain, wholesome food, as recommended under the article of diet; by exercise and fresh air; by allowing him, weather permitting, to be out of doors a great part of every day; by lancing the gums when they get red, hot, and swollen; by attention to the bowels, and if he suffer more than usual, by keeping them rather in a relaxed state by any simple aperient, such as either castor oil or magnesia and rhubarb, etc.; and, let me add, by attention to his temper. Many children are made feverish and ill by petting and spoiling them. On this subject I cannot do better than refer you to an excellent little work entitled Abbott’s _Mother at Home_, wherein the author proves the great importance of _early_ training. The young of animals seldom suffer from cutting their teeth—and what is the reason? Because they live in the open air and take plenty of exercise, while children are frequently cooped up in close rooms and are not allowed the free use of their limbs. The value of fresh air is well exemplified in the Registrar-General’s Report for 1843: he says that in 1,000,000 deaths from all diseases, 616 occur in the town from teething, while 120 only take place in the country from the same cause. 70. _Have the goodness to describe the symptoms and the treatment of Painful Dentition._