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.)

    59/482
    in the jaw than what is common; and after it had grown to the ordinary size it grew no longer, though it had not the resistance of the opposite teeth to set bounds to its increase ; yet commonly in these cases the tooth continues to project further and further through the gum, though this is not owing to its growing longer, but to the socket filling up behind it, and thereby continuing to push it out by slow degrees. Of the Sensibility of the Teeth. The teeth would seem to be very sensible, for they appear to be subject to great pain, and are easily and quickly affected by either heat or cold. We may presume that the bony substance itself is not capable of conveying sensations to the mind, because it is worn down in mastication, and occasionally worked upon by operators in living bodies, without giving any sensation cf pain in the part itself. In the cavity of a tooth it is well known that there is exquisite sensibility, and it is likewise believed that this is owing to the nerve in that cavity. This nerve would seem to be more sensible than nerves are in common, as we do not observe the same violent effects from any other nerve in the body being exposed either by wound or sore, as we do from the exposure of the nerve of a tooth. Perhaps the reason of the intenseness, as well as the quickness of the sense of heat and cold in the teeth, may be owing to their communicating these to the nerve sooner than any other part of the body.* Of Supernumerary Teeth. We often meet with supernumerary teeth, and this, as well as some other variations, happens oftener in the upper than in the lower jaw, and, I believe, always in the incisores and cuspidati. I have only met with one instance of this sort, and it was in the upper jaw of a child about nine months old: there were the bodies of two teeth, in shape like the cuspidati, placed directly behind the bodies of the two first permanent incisores, so that there were three teeth in a row, placed behind one another, viz. the temporary incisor, the body of the permanent incisor, and that supernumerary tooth. The most remarkable circumstance was, that these supernumerary teeth were inverted, their points being turned upwards, and bended by * [That the bony substance oftheteelh is of itself capable of conveying sensation to the mind is, notwithstanding the author's presumption to the con- trary, easily proved. Whence otherwise arises that acute sensation so commonly felt when the neck of a tooth is touched with the nail or with any sharp hard instrument, or when a portion of the enamel only is broken from the surface of a tooth * In the latter case every other part of the tooth may be touched without any sensation beino- produced, but as soon as the instrument comes in contact with the denuded°portion of the bone, a painful acute sensation is instantly perceived.]