Copy 1, Volume 1

The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good].

  • John Mason Good
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    112/784 page 58
    Gen. I. Spec. II. O. Dolo- rosa. Expla- nation of the cause of the imbedded state of bullets sometimes found in elephants’ tusks. Absorption of fangs no proof of vascularity of the teeth. Grn. I. Spexc. III. a O. Stu- poris a stri- dore. From jarring sounds. counteracted, and an incessant tendency to elongation, or growth, kept up in the organ. A list .of distinguished authorities, and a brief notice of some of the arguments in support of this physiological view of the nature of the teeth, are given by Meckel.* ' Bullets have been found imbedded in the tusks of elephants. Now, the advocates for the vascularity of the teeth have argued, that the closure of the opening, by which the ball entered the tusk, and the swelling sometimes observed in these cases opposite the foreign body, could not have taken place without the agency of ves- sels. However, these occurrences are now satisfactorily explained, without having recourse to this hypothesis. The tusks are con- stantly growing during the animal’s life, by a deposition of successive lamine within the cavity, while the outer surface and the point are’ gradually worn away ; and for this purpose the cavity is filled with a vascular pulp, similar to that in which the teeth are originally formed. Ifa ball penetrate the side of a tusk, cross its cavity, and lodge on the opposite side, it will become covered towards the ca- vity by the newly deposited layers of ivory, while no opening will exist between it and the surface to account forits entrance.¢ All the various appearances, attending the lodgment of bullets, and pieces of other weapons, in the tusks of elephants, can be accounted for by the power of the pulp connected with these organs. The absorption of the fangs of teeth is no proof of absorbents in them, the fact only showing that those parts are.capable of being acted upon by the organs of absorption, which may be situated in the alveoli, or in the cavities of the fangs, without being actually in the substance of the bone of the tooth. ] SPECIES III. ODONTIA STUPORIS. TOOTH-EDGE. TINGLING UNEASINESS OF THE TEETH FROM GRATING SOUNDS OR FRICTIONS. . Tuere is sometimes a peculiar sensibility in the teeth or their sheaths that induces a kind of vibratory pain, in which they are colloquially said to be set ON EDGE; and that in two ways, as follows : — a A stridore. From jarring noises. 8B Ab acritudine. _ From vellicative or acrid substances. In many cases, the teeth sympathise with the ear, on an ex- posure to harsh, dissonant, or stridulous sounds, as the grating of * Manuel d’ Anat. tom. iii. p. 357. See also Mém. sur l’Accroissement con- tinué et la Réproduction des Dents chez les Lapins, &c, par M. Oudet, in Magendie’s Journ. de Physiol., tom. iii. et iv.
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