Volume 3

Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum
Date:
1882-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/568 (page 7)
    decayed. Part of the decayed substance has been removed ; the rest is distinguished by its dull pale-brownish colour and the loss of its natural texture, which loss is more com¬ plete at the surface than in the deeper part of the decayed portion. The pulp-cavity is healthy ; part of it is tilled with red injection. The portion of the dentine adjacent to the decayed part is opaque white. Hunterian. 2144. Section of a decayed molar tooth, in which the disease has destroyed one of the tubercles of the crown, and has ex¬ tended into the pulp-cavity and along its -walls. On the opposite side there is a small opaque-white spot of diseased enamel. ' . Hunterian. “ It [decay] almost always begins externally in a small part of the body of the tooth, and commonly appears at first as an opake white spot. This is owing to the enamel’s losing its regular and crystallized texture, and being reduced to a state of powder, from the attraction of cohesion being destroyed, which produces similar effects to those of powdered crystal. When this has crumbled away the bony part of the tooth is exposed ; and when the disease has attacked this part, it generally appears like a dark brown speck.”—Hunter : On the Teeth ; Works, vol. ii. p. 59. 2145. A collection of variously decayed teeth, one from a Hog, the rest from men. They display most of the changes described by Mr. Hunter as characteristic of the disease :— its commencement in the exterior of the tooth—the u dark brown speck ” of the decayed portion of dentine—the round form of the decayed part—the appearance of a black crack, indicating the beginning of decay u on the hollow part of the grinding surface of the molars,” &c. Hunterian. Hypertrophy of the Pulp. 2146. Section of a molar tooth, of wmich the crown has been destroyed by decay, and the pulp-cavity is filled with a diseased growth called u a fungus ” in the Hunterian catalogue. Hunterian.