JAMES JACKSON ON THE SECOND DENTITION (1855)

[摘要] James Jackson (1777-1867) has been called the most conspicuous physician in the medical annals of Massachusetts. He was a founder of and the first physician to the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1812 he succeeded Benjamin Waterhouse as the Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.In his immensely popular, Letters to a Young Physician ,1 first published in 1855, Jackson described the diseases he believed were caused by the second dentition as follows:The occurrence of diseases during the first period of dentition is familiarly known, and attributed to the irritation of the coming teeth. It is not so well known that the appearance of the permanent teeth, also, is attended by diseases of various kinds. I feel satisfied, however, that this is the case....During the second dentition, then, a liability to disease may be remarked as well as during the first, though not so great. Besides this general liability, there are certain morbid affections which are in a good measure peculiar to the period....I think the most common period of suffering from the second dentition is from the tenth to the thirteenth year. The most characteristic affections are wasting of flesh and nervous diseases. The boy loses his comeliness, and his complexion is less clear, while emaciation takes place in every part, though mostly, perhaps, in the face. The nervous symptoms are various; but the most common are a change in the temper, and a loss of spirits. With these there is some loss of strength.

[学科分类] 儿科学