Pyorrhea alveolaris, variously known as Riggs' disease, Fauchard's disease, and by some other names, remains to this day a bete noir to dentists. This is mainly due to the fact that they can not cure it, and the best methods at their command to-day lie in prosthetic dentistry. Without desiring to pose as a carping critic, the method is bad and is surely a petitio in forma pauperis to him who is able to observe and to reason.
In this trouble, as well as in others, it is necessary to determine the cause and then properly treat it or eliminate it, and it is to this very question of cause that the present is written. He who has had an opportunity to observe a number of cases of syphilis has not failed to observe that a peculiar manifestation shows itself at first in connection with the lower canine teeth. This