each side, but not joining the
incisors; and lastly, about the eighteenth or twentieth month, the four
eye teeth, filling up the space left between the side teeth and the
incisors; thus completing the infant's set of sixteen. Sometimes at the
same period, but more frequently some months later, four more double
teeth slowly make their appearance, one on each side of each jaw,
completing the entire series of the child's first set of twenty teeth.
It is asserted that a child, while cutting its teeth, should either
dribble excessively, vomit after every meal, or be greatly relaxed.
Though one or other, or all of these at once, may attend a case of
teething, it by no means follows that any one of them should accompany
this process of nature, though there can be no doubt that where the pain
consequent on the unyielding state of the gums, and the firmness of the
skin that covers the tooth, is severe, a copious discharge of saliva
acts beneficially in saving the head, and also in guarding the child
from those dangerous attacks of fits to which many children in their
teething are liable.

2513. _The Symptoms_ that generally indicate the cutting of teeth, in
addition to the inflamed and swollen state of the gums, and increased
flow of saliva, are the restless and peevish state of the child, the
hands being thrust into the mouth, and the evident pleasure imparted by
rubbing the finger or nail gently along the gum; the lips are often
excoriated, and the functions of the stomach or bowels are out of order.
In severe cases, occurring in unhealthy or scrofulous children, there
are, from the first, considerable fever, disturbed sleep, fretfulness,
diarrhoea, rolling of the eyes, convulsive startings, laborious
breathing, coma, or unnatural sleep, ending, unless the head is quickly
relieved, in death.

2514. The _Treatment_ in all cases of painful teething is remarkably
simple, and consists in keeping the body cool by mild aperient
medicines, allaying the irritation in the gums by friction with a rough
ivory ring or a stale crust of broad, and when the head, lungs, or any
organ is overloaded or unduly excited, to use the hot bath, and by
throwing the body into a perspiration, equalize the circulation, and
relieve the system from the danger of a fatal termination.

2515. Besides these, there is another means, but that must be employed
by a medical man; namely, scarifying the gums--an operation always safe,
and which, when judiciously