The pathology of dental caries / by C. Spence Bate.

  • Bate, C. Spence.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pathology of dental caries / by C. Spence Bate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    43/100 (page 39)
    Tlie cementnm in its most perfectly developed condition is not a highly calcified tissue,* and, judging of its aspect by the assistance of a micro- scope, it is less so in man than in animals. Its low vitality admits of its early death, and it is to this cause, I believe, that discoloration is to be attributed—being that of decomposition, and, analogous to the dark appearance of decay in dentine. Decomposition of animal tissue having com- menced, the immediate and one of the chief pro- ducts is carbonic acid. The creation of this acid within, as it were, the tissue itself, and therefore brought in its nascent condition into juxtaposition with the salts of the tooth, must act with more direct power, and reduce the salt to a soluble condition. The removal of each atom of phosphate of lime, in its turn exposes more of the animal tissue of the enamel to decom- position, and an increased chemical action is superinduced. To support the assertion that the removal of the salts of the tooth is due to the action of car- bonic acid, it is necessary that I should establish it by experimental evidence.! * According to the analysis of Lassaigne, the quantity of animal matter in the “cortical substance” (cementum) is 42T8, whereas Berzelius states that of the “osseous portion” (dentine) to be 2S-0.— Beqtjeuel & Rodieu, 1. c. p. 51G. f The author of this paper placed a section of a tooth in a glass of distilled water, and passed into it carbonic acid generated in another