Report on the progress of human anatomy and physiology in the year 1842-3 / [Sir James Paget].

  • James Paget
Date:
1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the progress of human anatomy and physiology in the year 1842-3 / [Sir James Paget]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    constant formation of a layer of bone or, probably, of imperfect ivory like what Mr. Nasmyth has called ossified pulp, within the pulp-cavity of the human tooth, after the age of twenty years, independently of any wearing down of the enamel. The layer is thickest at the orifice of the dental cavity, and gradually diminishes as it descends into it till it is lost upon the walls; its thickness increases with advanc¬ ing age. He remarks also that the part which is by far the most frequent seat of the commencement of decay in the molar teeth is the groove which separates the tuber¬ cles of their crowns, and at which the operculae (according to Mr. Goodsir) meet when the papillary is changed into the capsular stage of development. These grooves are first affected as regularly in the upper as in the lower jawT; as if they were from the first imperfectly developed: [that is, probably, they are liable to the imper¬ fections of parts last formed, such as are often seen in the other lines of median or centralfusion.'] Salivary secretion. Dr. Budge* * * § has found that after extirpation of the parotid, submaxillary, and sublingual glands in a dog and a rabbit, the secretion of saliva continued; its characters remained the same, and no function was disturbed. [The experiments add probability to the opinion that the labial, buccal, palatine, and other glands which the experimenter left behind, are salivary glands.] A case of a kind of metastasis of the salivary secretion is related by Dr. Roelants,f and is interesting in its relation to the general physiology of secretion. A man, eighty-two years old, had an attack of bronchitis, with lever, followed by suppu¬ ration around and probably in one of the parotid glands. The abscess was opened, and two months after a large mass of chalk-like substance was discharged. The abscess soon healed, and he recovered his health ; but now, whenever he masti¬ cates, saliva flows freely from the skin of the cheek and temple of the side for¬ merly diseased. As soon as he begins to eat, the skin becomes very full of blood, and hot; and gradually drop after drop of clear fluid, with all the characters of saliva, collects on its surface, and runs down the cheek and neck, and continues to do so just as long as he continues eating. His health is not disturbed, and the saliva-secreting surface of the skin is natural in its texture. Anatomy of the pharynx. Professor Mayer of Bonn described some time agoj a bursa pharyngea in many mammalia. He has since found it several times in men. It lies in a corresponding position to that which it occupies in the mam¬ malia, namely, in the middle line in the mucous membrane covering the body of the sphenoid bone, just behind the posterior border of the vomer. It is sometimes large enough to hold a cherry-stone, and in one case was double. He thinks it probable that in other mammalia, in which the bursa is larger, it may sometimes communicate with the sphenoidal sinuses.§ Functions of the stomach. MM. Sandras and Bouchardat,|| assuming that, in general, dissolved substances are absorbed by the veins of the stomach, while those that are insoluble are taken into the lacteals, believe that they have proved that the chief classes of aliments are thus disposed of: 1. Fibrin, albumen, caseum, gluten, and the gelatinous tissues are dissolved by the aid of hydrochloric acid; [and, probably, of pepsin.] A mixture of six parts of this acid with 10,000 of water they found sufficient to make all these principles swell up into translucent * Schmidt’s Jahrbucher, Bd. xxxv, Heft 3. Dr. Budge’s conclusions on the chemical and other characters of the saliva are confirmatory, so far as they go, of the statements in the essays by Dr. Wright, (Lancet, March 5, 1842, and following numbers;) of which I must regret that those relating to the composition of the saliva were published before the date at which this report commences. Many of them are confirmed also by Lehmann. (Schmidt’s Jahrbucher, 1843, No. viii, p. 156.) He however states that he has always found sugar altered by saliva, lactic acid being produced by their contact at 95 deg. Fahr. See also on this subject the review of Schultz, Ueber die Verjungung, &c. in vol. XVI, p. 232. j- Heije’s Archief voor Geneeskunde, 1842, St. iv. + Froriep’sNotizen, April, 1840. § Neue Unters. aus dem Gebiete der Auatomie und Physiologie—Bonn, 1842. j| L’Experience, Fevrier 3, 1843, from a paper read before the Academie des Sciences.