The complete works of John Hunter, F.R.S (Volume 2).

  • John Hunter
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The complete works of John Hunter, F.R.S (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    general it may be said that the whole of the cavity is nearly of the shape of the tooth itself, larger, that is, in the body of the tooth, and thence gradually smaller to the extremity of the fang; simple where the tooth has but one root,* and in the same manner com- pounded when the tooth has two or more fangs.f This cavity is not cellular, but smooth in its surface : it contains no marrow, but appears to be filled with blood-vessels,! and, I sup- pose, nerves, united by a pulpy or cellular substance. The vessels are branches of the superior and inferior mamillaries, and the nerves must come from the second and third branches of the fifth pair. By injections we can trace the blood-vessels distinctly through the whole cavity of the tooth; but I could never trace the nerves distinctly even to the beginning of the cavity. Of the Periosteum of the Teeth. The teeth, as we have observed, are covered by an enamel only at their bodies; but at their fangs they have a periosteum, which, though very thin, is vascular, and appears to be common to the tooth which it incloses, and the socket, which it lines as an invest- ing internal membrane. It covers the tooth a little beyond the bony socket, and is there attached to the gum.§ Of the Situation of the Teeth. The general shape and situation of the teeth are obvious. The opposition of those of the two jaws, and the circle which each row describes, need not be particularly explained, as they may be very well seen in the living body, and may be supposed to be already understood from what has been said of the alveolar processes We may just observe, with regard to the situation of the two rows, that when they are in the most natural state of contact the teeth of the upper jaw project a little beyond the lower teeth, even at the sides of the jaws, but still more remarkably at the fore nart where, in most people, the upper teeth lie before those of the lower jaw ;|| and a the lateral part of each row the line or surface of contact is hollow from behind forwards in the lower jaw and in the same proportion it is convex in the upper jaw 1 I he edge of each row is single at the fore part of the iaws • bnt as the teeth grow thicker backwards, it there Psp£,Tlnto £Sterna! * PI. III. f. 4, 5, 6, 7. t PI HI f 1 2 § [The periosteum can hardly be said to be common . .u * , V f' 7> 8' It k in fact, continued from the extern ,1 surface of ,1° V 'T'1 ad lhe SOcket- socket, and then reflected over the surface of thp . al*eolar Pr°cess into the be removed from a dead body, it will be fonnT j US' if a healthy tooth periosteum, and the alveolar cavity win a]So 'ft ^^ ^ an e^emely thin structure. Probably when inflammation ha once exht^T' 'J b* a simi,ar | PLLcftT Uie UV° ,^er5TbeIcb7e ^^Lt^T bU ^
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