EXCESSIVE SECRETION OF SALIVA. SALIVATION. PTYALISM.
Causes; a symptom of other diseases, of the mouth, teeth, throat or stomach; rank aqueous vegetation, lobelia, pilocarpin, muscaria, tobacco, mustard, and other acrid vegetables; caustic alkalies, acids, salts; compounds of mercury, gold, copper, iodine; palsy of lips; harsh bit; fungi on clover, sainfoin, etc. Symptoms; salivary escape; frequent deglutition; thirst; disordered digestion, etc. Treatment; remove cause; astringent washes; sedatives; embrocations to the glands.
This is often a symptom of some other affection such as aphthous fever, dumb rabies, epilepsy, stomatitis, pharyngitis, dentition, caries and other diseases of the teeth, wounds and ulcers of the mouth, gastric catarrh, etc. In other cases it is due to direct irritants in the food or medicine, as very rank, aqueous, rapidly grown, spring grass, lobelia, pilocarpin, muscarin, tobacco, wild mustard, colchicum, pepper, garlic, ginger, irritant and caustic alkalies, acids and salts, and the compounds of mercury, gold, copper, or iodine employed locally or internally. The application of mercurials to the skin is especially liable to salivate cattle and dogs, partly because of a special susceptibility to the action of this metal and partly from the tendency of these animals to lick the medicated surface. Paralysis of the lips causes a great flow of saliva from the mouth though no more than the normal amount is secreted. The irritation of a large or harsh bit will increase the secretion and still more the former habit of attaching to it small bags of spicy or irritant chemicals. Certain fungi determine salivation. Mathieu saw profuse salivation in horses, cattle and sheep fed on clover and sainfoin which had become brown.
Symptoms consist in the profuse flow of saliva, either in long stringy filaments, or if there is much movement of the jaws, in frothy masses; frequent deglutition; increased thirst and disordered digestion (tympany, inappetence, colics, constipation, diarrhœa). In mercurial salivation there may be loose teeth, swollen, spongy, ulcerated gums, tympany, rumbling, and the passage of fœtid flatus and soft ill-digested stools.
Treatment consists in removing the cause, whether this is to be found in faulty food or drink, diseased teeth or gums, disordered stomach, or the irritant food medicine or poison ingested. If more is wanted simple astringent washes like those recommended for stomatitis and a free access to pure water will often suffice. Tartar emetic or opium has been known to succeed in obstinate cases. Friction over the parotid or submaxillary gland with camphorated spirit, tincture of iodine or soap liniment is sometimes required. In mercurial salivation chlorate of potash is especially to be commended, and when the bowels have been unloaded of the agent, iodide of potassium will hasten its elimination from the tissues and blood.